York House Sparks Mural
We wanted to bring to the Yorkies a project that would allow for the three senior Art classes to interact and do something together, celebrating their personalities, loves and sparks. So, last Fall, one of the students, Jessica Wall (who was a little ahead) came up with a sketch for us to use as a base for the mural; the principal mentioned it would be nice if the mural was inspired by Emily Carr's work, and so Jessica had this in mind when working on it.
Another thing Jessica had to keep in mind was, the mural had to be borderless -- in other words, not in a square or rectangular format. Basically, the design should have flowing borders, not contained by any particular shape -- just as their youthful spirit is not contained by anything. She had a lot of fun with that idea, and a couple of days later, presented the final design.
The pieces were divided in an organic way, so that they followed the colours and shapes Jessica had designed; at the same time, they were kept reasonably the same size (allowing for some very small and some very big, for the less brave and the bravest ;)
The idea was for the observer not to be able to tell where one child stopped and another started -- so, borderless pieces on the inside as well. Just as organically connected and intermingled as a community as they are in real life.
While the overall theme of the mural was Emily Carr, each child was told that their individual theme was their sparks, their passion and life as a girl at York House. Any style could be used, and any subject could be tackled, as long as from far away, the piece had the same colours as the original sketch.
The children had a lot of fun looking through each others' pieces and talking about them as well. It worked wonderfully, and it really brought them all together in many different ways.
Below, links to the two pages: the process and the final piece.
Another thing Jessica had to keep in mind was, the mural had to be borderless -- in other words, not in a square or rectangular format. Basically, the design should have flowing borders, not contained by any particular shape -- just as their youthful spirit is not contained by anything. She had a lot of fun with that idea, and a couple of days later, presented the final design.
The pieces were divided in an organic way, so that they followed the colours and shapes Jessica had designed; at the same time, they were kept reasonably the same size (allowing for some very small and some very big, for the less brave and the bravest ;)
The idea was for the observer not to be able to tell where one child stopped and another started -- so, borderless pieces on the inside as well. Just as organically connected and intermingled as a community as they are in real life.
While the overall theme of the mural was Emily Carr, each child was told that their individual theme was their sparks, their passion and life as a girl at York House. Any style could be used, and any subject could be tackled, as long as from far away, the piece had the same colours as the original sketch.
The children had a lot of fun looking through each others' pieces and talking about them as well. It worked wonderfully, and it really brought them all together in many different ways.
Below, links to the two pages: the process and the final piece.
