Perspective Final

The mural is finally finished! We are really, really happy with how it turned out. It took a lot of work and many, many days to do a mural on such a large scale, but it was totally worth it! It is exciting to have our artwork where everyone can see it in the school courtyard! Here is a brief timeline of our process. See the Perspective Ideas post for the original planning!

In the Planning Process

In the works

In the Works

It's a good day when you get this messy in art class!

Part 1 of the Final Piece

Part 2 of the Final Piece

The whole process was really fun and we are very happy with how the final piece turned out! I learned a lot from this project about going out of my comfort zone, collaborating with others, and more, listed here in artistic behaviors. 

Artists Collaborate: For this mural, we had five of us working on it. At first, when we were doing the original designs, it seemed like it might be kind of difficult to work with so many others and collaborate with them as we all have such unique perspectives and creative gifts. As we continued on, however, we quickly learned that we could use those "setbacks" to our advantage. We decided to run with the idea of having such differing perspectives and use that in the piece. We knew we wanted to do a landscape, but that simple idea grew with the idea of each incorporating our own perspective into those landscapes. Each section truly represents each of our unique tastes and aesthetics that would not have been captured as effectively if we worked individually!

Artists Take Risks: I'm not exaggerating when I say that this mural is HUGE. It was extremely intimidating at the beginning with the five of us standing in front of this tall, long, completely empty brick wall. We considered scaling down a bit, but after planning out such an elaborate mural that we were all so excited about, we could not bring ourselves to do it! It was a big risk to complete a mural on such a large wall, but I am really glad that we took the risk. With the five of us working hard, we were able to complete it and make the wall a lot less empty! As you walk past it, it is really eye-catching because of the size and vibrant colors. I am happy that we decided to take a risk and not be intimidated from the start. 

Artists Develop Art- Making Skills: I will be honest, I have never worked with chalk before except for creating endless rows of hopscotch with the kids I babysit (and occasionally for myself :). I was nervous at first for taking on such a large project in a medium I had not experimented too much with, but the process of creating the mural was truly just that, an experiment. I quickly learned that the chalk was great for blending and creating unique values in the crevasses of the brick. I was also able to create a lot of detail with the smaller pieces. Who knew that chalk could be used for more than hopscotch? 

Parallel Project Idea

To begin brainstorming for this new project, we were asked to think of a list of current events that would serve as inspiration. Our lists all consisted of the major news stories going around, mostly hard things to grasp that are always circulating the news. The assignment is to create a project that parallels a current event using metaphors. As I was studying the lists, all I saw were these horrible event and darkness. I was feeling super uninspired in all the depressing stuff going on, but as I furthered my own research, I discovered a lot of "faith in humanity restored" stories that often get overlooked because they do not cause as much affliction or drama.

 I suddenly got very inspired and got the idea to do my whole project as one big parallel for the idea of restoring faith in humanity in the midst of so much darkness. 

My idea for the execution of this idea is to do photo transfers of black and white newspaper headlines as a metaphor for the bad news. The newspapers will form "bricks" that will appear to be falling apart and on top of them, I will use tissue paper flowers to symbolize the peace and goodness that can still be found. I did a mixed media project last semester and really enjoyed the experience, so I am excited to try it again. Stay tuned for updates and pictures!