What a Wonderful World Mural

Well, this blog post has been a long time coming, as we've been working on this What a Wonderful World mural since the start of the school year! I'm excited to say that it's complete and it's up (when it wants to stay up, sigh). You can take a tour of the mural and learn all about who made what and what lessons were involved in this video right here! 

We've done SO MANY school-wide collaboratives at my school. I absolutely love them. They are also my favorite way to start the school year. I'm working on creating another blog post of all our collaboratives compiled in one post...but until then, check out the video for details and THIS podcast episode on how you can use song as a collaborative inspiration!

This mural makes me so happy and I thought it was such an appropriate song for this school year. I've gotten so much of a wonderful response from the faculty and staff (and kids!) that I'm thrilled. I mean, doing a collab like this is so much work. Especially when it comes time to assemble and hang the beast!

In the podcast episode, I mentioned the painted party my students did to create the background papers. Here is the blog post all about that! 

And here's the video if you'd like to see us in action:

One of the many reasons I like to start my school year with a collaborative is because it means we are all pretty much working with the same art supplies. In this case, we were working with bingo daubers and tempera paint...a lot!

Some of the lessons were tired and true like the first grade flowers you see at the start of this blog post. Some were new like the funny face clouds by kindergarten!

Our next mural is going to be based on our school song! I'm so glad we have a school song, it's so sweet and our students love to sing it. I think it will be perfect and hope to create a permanent display. 

I got many requests from teachers for future songs....but next time I think I'd like to go with a song that the kids really know and love. 

Adding the component of also learning the song in sign language was very fun and a great way to connect with our deaf friends. We have fabulous ASL teachers in our school who helped us learn the song. 

Of course learning a song in a different language would be amazing too! The kids loved creating these painted plates with greetings in different languages for the mural. This was an easy early finisher activity for my students as they worked thru their paintings. 

I know I'm totally oversharing in this post but I just love this mural so much! Funny face raindrops by second grade. 

Collage and stitched houses by first!

Second grade read It's Okay to be Different by Todd Parr as their inspiration for their contribution to the mural. 

Third grade created these warm color flowers!

And I got to put it all together. Lucky me! It's okay, I love it so much and can't wait to create another! You'll have to let me know if you tackle a project like this and how it goes.

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In the Art Room: It's a Small World Mural

I'm so excited to share the newest addition to the art room: my Mary Blair-inspired It's a Small World Mural! As y'all know, I'm doing a big ole art room flip. I've been changing so many things up in my art room that each time the kiddos come, they spot something new. I got hooked on painting murals when I tackled this beast a month ago: 

I had a bit of paint leftover after cranking out this mural that I started setting designs on another area of my art room. I've had my Art History Wall up for so long...and while I love it, it just never got used. Once my art room was rearranged because of my document cam, that area of my room was never used for instruction. So the Art History Wall just ended up being an abandoned and faded spot that just didn't make me happy anymore. 
Here's the before: 

Full details on this wall here. Here I am tearing it down and prepping the new space:

It was bitter sweet taking this wall down. I loved the idea of it as a resource but feel like this new area (which will be used for extra art supplies and a fibers space) will be much happier with my new mural. I know it makes me super happy each morning to see it!

 I'm not COMPLETELY done yet...the clock is currently the only 3-D element to the wall but I do plan to add more. My dream is to have little doors that open and moving parts...but for now, I'm calling it kinda-sorta done. Done-ish. Done-lite.

 Because the Art History Wall took up so much space, I had a large area of the room that was unusable for storage. I happened to find this bookcase in another room in my school and it fits PERFECTLY! I've had lots of questions on my IG about those containers with the painted faces...those are for my extra marker storage. They are cat litter containers that I painted faces on and store extra markers in by color. In fact, this entire bookcase is my "overflow" of supplies: markers, color pencils, oil pastels. It needs  A LOT of work (more shelves added would be great) but I'm excited about the idea.

I also cannot wait to use this mural to teach shapes! All the geometric shapes with just a few organic. We can talk about Klee, Blair and so much more...I'm so loving this area. Can you tell? Am I goin' on and on about it enough for ya? 

 That clock was a thrift store score...in it's past life, it was a country-fied clock with a rooster painted on it. I'm thinkin' I did alright.

My love of Mary Blair has been goin' strong for a long time. I created this Mary Blair painted bag several years ago. 

For that I stuck pretty closely to the original. For my art room, I was pretty loose. Painting on those cinder blocks is not easy...especially when you want to paint a straight line, ugh! Don't get me started! I didn't use tape, I just drew everything on the wall in a light color of chalk and just went to down. Everything had to get at least two coats (sometimes more) which was super fun (insert eye roll.)

 Several years ago, I had the AMAZING experience of meeting Richard Sherman of the Sherman brothers. He and his brother wrote the theme to It's a Small World as well as the music for Mary Poppins and so many other Disney classics. It was such a joy to meet him, his sweet wife and hear all about his work at Disney.

I was so star struck!

 I'll be sure to keep you posted on what else I add to my mural...as well as this new area of my art room. 

I've already got my Friendly Loom up (needs a little warping) and plan to place all of our fibers supplies in the Mona Lisa cabinet on the left. The rack is one I found at the thrift store and I think it will be great for holding our yarn!

 I've gotten a lot of questions on what kind of paint I used: Behr wall paint. 

 I've also been asked what my admin has to say about me painting my walls and how I went about getting permission. Permission?! What's that?! I just went at it...I live in the South, we ask for forgiveness, not permission. All kidding aside, they love it! Thank goodness. Thank you so much for letting me share!

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In the Art Room: A Legacy Mosaic Mural

So one day before the art show, we managed to pull together and pull off one of our biggest collaboratives to date: our Legacy Mosaic Mural!

This big honkin' mama-jama was created by my first thru third grade students. I knew that my kindergarten and fourths would need two weeks for their clay projects...and that my other kiddos would only need one. But when we work with clay, we ALL work with clay so I knew I'd need a project for that group which would carry us thru the second week. And that's when I got the idea for this big ole project. Here's the video I created months ago for the kids. Feel free to use in your art teacherin' world!

I'm a big fan of the artist and illustrator Galia Bernstein and this project was inspired both by her and by the book Who is the Beast? by Keith Baker. 

I know you can totally see the influence, can't you? I've always loved this book. When I came to my school so many years ago, I loved that a tiger was the mascot. It meant I could share this book even more with the kids!

So, who did we do it? Lemme tell ya.

First grade made the flowers, second grade made the butterflies and third grade made the birds. Everyone who finished their small piece then created a leaf or two. Before each piece was placed in the kiln, I placed the alphabet noodles of the kid's initials into the clay. These noodles burned off in the kiln and left behind the impression of the initials. 

Once each piece was out of the kiln, I created a diluted black glaze. Then I dunked just the surface of each piece in the glaze and then gave them a quick wipe on a damp sponge. This part was time-consuming (the entire thing was, honestly). But I just sat one day after school and dunked, swiped, dunked swiped until they were complete. 

These pieces were then returned to the students where they were tasked with glazing just the raised surface. I did limit the palette so that it wouldn't be too much of a sea of color. Flowers were yellow, pink and red, birds were blues, butterflies were purple, orange and yellow. Leaves were a variety of green. 

 After these were fired the second time, the workload was on me. I had acquired this huge frame last year and I'd been dreaming of a mosaic project since. I measured the inside of the frame which is 3' X 4'. I went to the local hardware store where they cut me a piece to size. I also picked up a jumbo bottle of Gorilla Glue and high gloss paint. My P.E. teacher buddy painted the board for me. From there my custodian friend glued and drilled the board into the frame.  

 I created the tiger. This literally took me 45 minutes to draw out, cut and texture-ize. With the art show looming, I was short on time which meant I was in hustle mode. That dried a matter of days. This past Sunday, I came in, laid out and glued each piece, glazed and fired the tiger. 

 In other news, does anyone know how to get Gorilla Glue off of skin? I've had it on my hands FOR DAYS now!

The tiger came out of the kiln this morning and was glued into place. This massive masterpiece will not be grouted. Before hanging it, it weighed in at 70 lbs. Grout would have only made it heavier.

 There were small empty spaces that were driving me nuts. I remembered I had a stash of decorative marbles and glued them in place. I LOVE them as they add a bit of sparkle to the piece. 

Stroke and Coat by Mayco is the best, y'all!

 This afternoon, my custodian friends worked tirelessly to get this beast up on the wall. It's drilled into the wall as well as supported by both a hanger and a beam underneath. 

 And the pieces are rock solid with that glue.

With the art show tomorrow, I'm so excited that we were able to pull this one off! It is my favorite collaborative to date!

 We do a lot of collaboratives and legacy projects. You can find out more about our chalked ceiling tiles, our You Be You mural and our JES selfies too! 

Because we do so many collaboratives, my students rarely are upset if they don't get to "take it home". I emphasize that this is their beautiful mark they are leaving behind...and for real, look how beautiful it is! I'm so happy with my sweet artists and this beast of a creation. Love to hear of any mosaics y'all have done like this! 

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