Battle of Lake Erie, ca. 1934: In the summer of 1934 Woodruff spent six weeks in Mexico as an unpaid assistant to mural painter Diego Rivera, the leader of a vigorous, revolutionary public-art movement in that country. When Americans were called upon to decorate schools, post offices, and courthouses for the New Deal's public art projects, Mexican muralists like Rivera were their mentors. Rivera's monumental paintings glorifying the history of the Mexican people served as a practical guide for Woodruff's work.