Field Trip! Mural Artist Gale Hinton

Recently, our school library was magically transformed thanks to our amazing librarian Laurel Aiello and magnificent muralist Gale Hinton. 

Over a weekend (that's just a matter of days, y'all!), Gale worked tirelessly, climbing up scaffolding and ladders with just paint and imagination as her tools. Gale does little preplanning; no sketching on walls and definitely no projecting of images. She's been doing murals for 50 years (!) and manages to create masterpieces in a matter of hours. When I walked in the library the morning she had started working, she had already created the background of the large mural above the checkout desk. I knew then that I wanted to interview her for my Field Trip! series and I was thrilled when she agreed. 

Isn't she amazing!? 

The selection of books that our librarian pulled for Gale to serve as inspiration. The kids were thrilled to walk in the library and play a game of I Spy looking for the book characters. Gale even has the characters talking to each other which adds another dimension to the mural. 

Gale said she wanted the mural to appear accessible to the students so she had it grow outside of the rectangle border with the ladder coming down from the treehouse and Fancy Nancy dancing on the bookcase. 

 The ladder is so realistic, we've had several kids ask to climb it! 

The speed with which Gale paints is amazing. She began this mural and the one below at 4:30pm and had them both complete by 9 that evening! 

One of my favorite parts of the mural are the quotes that she and Laurel chose. They are so inspiring and empowering for our students. I have yet to tire of reading them and just gazing at all of the beautiful work that Gale did.  

A question I received from my students was why I wasn't painting the mural. As art teachers, our kiddos often see us as the all-encompassing artist. I responded that I am an art teacher, that my skills lie in teaching art. Gale is a professional mural artist, that is her skill which she has cultivated over many years of hard work. There is NO WAY 1. I would get on that scaffolding (and a ladder on top of that, my hands are sweating just thinking about it!) and 2. that I could paint so quickly and with such confidence. What took her days would take me MONTHS and it still wouldn't look nearly as amazing. 

 The beautiful murals were dedicated to Laurel's husband T.J. Aiello. He would have loved seeing the library transformed into such a magical and amazing space. 

 For now, this is my favorite quote painted by Gale...my opinion changes every time I go in the library. 

Thank you so much, Gale, for sitting down with me and the students of JES to chat. AND thank you for sharing your incredible talents on the walls of our school library! 

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In the Art Room: Chalked Flower Ceiling Tiles

It all started last year, when we had a visiting artist who is a street painter (aka a sidewalk chalk artist). The kids were supposed to go outside and work on their own taped off portion of sidewalk. And then...rain. With my small brain frantically searching for ideas where the kids could still work on a sidewalk-esque surface but remain indoors, the Chalked Ceiling Tile project was born! 

My super awesome administration had been asking me for a while to do some artwork on ceiling tiles. I'd put the project off as I just didn't know how to go about it. But when rain was predicted the eve before our sidewalk chalk event, the idea to have students chalk tiles came to me. After toying around a bit, I found that the reverse side of the tiles actually worked much better than the front!

Last year, second graders create these butterfly ceiling tiles as it was apart of their curriculum. This year, it isn't. So I decided to have them create something that would look nice with the butterflies: flowers! 

This year, I decided to try something a little different. I've been showing demo videos on the regular in my art room and the kids have responded really well. Because I was going to be teaching an entire grade level of second graders in a loud multi-purpose room, I thought this would be the perfect time to use a filmed lesson. I've been adding videos regularly so feel free to subscribe to my channel if you wanna. Here's the video the kids watched:

You'll notice that the video is broken down into four sections: drawing out the flowers, coloring in the flowers, adding a background, outlining and autographing. I had the students work on these from roughly 9:30 to 11am. They are used to 30 minute art classes! So, I would show a small snippet of the video and allow them to work. They knew to gather back on the floor when they were finished. Of course, they all finish at different rates. When I had about a dozen or more students gathered on the floor, I would ring my chime (yes, that was a shameless plug for my husband's company) which would signal ALL students, finished or not, to gather on the floor to hear the next snippet. I do this in my art room when we have several steps, so the kids are kinda used to this routine.

Not gonna lie, this was no small undertaking but it is so totally worth it. If you wanna do a chalked ceiling tile project with your students, you'll need the following:

* Chalk. I love KOSS brand. It's not cheap but it is rich in color. I bought 20 boxes last year and we were able to use them again this year. I will probably only need to purchase 10 more boxes for next year's tiles. We've also used them for other projects throughout the year.  
* Bowls. I had a sweet high school student shadow me the other day and I put her on the task of making a bowl of warm color chalk and cool per every two students. 
* Ceiling Tiles. One per kiddo. Ask your friendly custodian for access to his/her stash.
* Foam Brush Thingies. Get them in the variety pack at your fave hardware store. These are perfect for blending chalk.
* Bulletin Board Paper. To cover the floors. We worked in the multi-purpose room which was great for a large group of kids. Once we were finished and the tiles were stacked on a dolly, we simply rolled up the paper and recycled it!
* Baby wipes. We only used these at the very end. I mean, your hands are just gonna get dirty again, right?! Don't clean 'em til you are finished. 
* Cheap Hairspray. Get the good stuff. You know, like AquaNet.
* Fabulous Parent Volunteers. These folks are the backbone to my art program. They hang the art show. They help with clay projects. They get things done. Y'all gotta get you some. And special thanks to mine, I love y'all!

To organize this event, I simply messaged second grade and special area teachers to give them some dates. Once we landed on one that worked, I asked if they'd kindly pop in the multi-purpose room in 30 minute shifts to help the kids if needed. During that hour and a half time slot, I usually have second grade classes and a planning...so none of my other kids missed their regularly scheduled art classes, which was great! 

Once floral designs were drawn, the kids moved on to the next phase which was adding color. 

For some, this took some time as they drew their flowers small. This was fine with me! However, I did notice some artist-fatigue...so having the kids stop, move and watch the next step via video was good. It meant they went back to their work spot with renewed energy.

I think I would like to do a different theme with the students each year. Because these tiles will remain in the ceiling for a long time, a different theme would mean they could easily find their tiles and remember their classes theme! I had thought of taking down last year's tiles and returning them to the current 3rd grade...but I quickly changed my mind when some of those children said, "you aren't taking down OUR tiles, are you?!" I might be fun to build on this idea and add more tiles each year. So that's the plan, for now.

About an hour in, and most kids were finishing their flowers and ready for the background. 

 Our last phase was outlining and signing our name with black. At this point, students were finishing at different speeds and getting a wee bit squirrelly. To remedy that, I had them baby wipe their hands and go to the floor where we watched an art education video. 

Once the majority of children were finished, a teacher took them outside for recess. This left me and parent volunteers to clean up and allowed those kids who were still working to continue creating. Those are usually my pokey-lil-perfectionists. I'm never gonna ask them to hurry up! 

Once these lovelies were complete, we busted out the Aqua Net and commenced spraying them like it was 1985.

Personal fave back in the day. Mostly because of the Mondrian design!

After cleaning up and cleaning the tiles outta the multi-purpose room, I loaded them onto a cart and wheeled them down to my room. Our fabulous custodian Mr. Scruggs will hang them next week...I'll be sure to share a pic! If you follow me here, you'll see it real soon! 

 Love the composition of this one!

Check out the knees of the kid on the right. Next year, we should just take them outside and hose them down!

 After the kids, before the clean up. So much colorful happiness!

 My buddy the music teachers suggested that each year, for our theme, we have the kids decorate tiles that correlate to the location in the hallway. For example, outside of the gym, the kids chalk sports equipment. And outside of the music room, music-themed designs. I love that idea!

 

Now that this massive undertaking is complete, I can focus on Art Show Land. 

Have y'all done ceiling tile projects? What did you do? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. xo!

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In the Art Room: It's Okay to be Different! Part 2

Y'all. I realized recently that I never shared the finished product of our Todd Parr inspired It's Okay to be Different mural. Which wasn't an accident. It's been on my To-Do list to finish this beast (there are still 140 more selfies that will flank the sides of this bad boy) and when I exhaustedly sighed to my buddy the custodian this evening that I really should stick around and do it, he said, "Eh. Go home and put your feet up. Do it tomorrow." He's a super smart dude so I decided to take his advice and work on it later...but share it with y'all today! 

When you walk out of my art room door, this is the first thing you see, these silly, happy and different faces! I went through the process of just how the kids, kindergarten through fourth grade, created these painted and collaged pieces in this post so be sure to take a peak!

Our inspo was this fun and colorful book. This book is short and sweet and perfect for my various age groups. It also packs a powerful message: it's okay to be different! I try my hardest to stress this, self-importance and uniqueness in my art room. All our lives, we are told to fit in, follow along, do whatever it is that Susie is doing that gets her oodles of praise from her teacher. But just how boring would life be if we were all Susies? You're YOU and nobody else...and that's simply wonderful!

Not to mention totes adorbs. 

As the kids finished off their selfies, I started collecting them and laying them out on a huge roll of paper. We happen to have this 12' wide roll of paper at my school which I've pretty much claimed as Art Room Property. I love using it for murals like these so I can just start hot gluing these guys down. 

We've done several murals at my school (full list with links below) and I've been asked by a handful of art teacherin' types if the kids are ever sad that they don't often get their pieces returned to them. I explain to them at the start of the project that their handwork will be enjoyed by many for a long time (this piece will probably stay up until the start of the new school year and possibly beyond. I really love it!). I also snapped photos of them to eventually pop up onto ArtSonia so the kids will have the chance to share with family in their online gallery. 

 However...I do have this wild and crazy idea. Once I [finally] get all of the pieces hung, I want to snap a couple of high resolution pics and have their work made into fabric on Spoonflower! AND THEN make a dress from it. Oh, but that's a secret. Don't tell los kiddos. Especially not the dude on the top right. He looks like he's having a bad day already. 

Big Ole School-Wide Collaboratives and Murals are super fun but, not gonna lie, a whole lotta work. I've shared many of mine in the past. Here's a lil list if you wanna take a look-see:

• Dot Day Collaboratives (a project for each grade level!)
• Henri Rousseau-inspired Mural
• Chalked Ceiling Tile Collaborative
• Magritte Mural
• The Johnson Elementary Legacy piece
• Our School Has Heart Mural
• Gallery of Gratitude
• Winter Program Collaborative
• Monet-Inspired Mural
• Wishful Winterwonderland Mural
• Warhol Soup Can Mural
• Heather Galler-Inspired Mural by first grade

Whew! And if you just wanna read more about school-wide collaboratives, get yerself here, kids.

And when your done clickin' on all them linky-loos, pop over here, check out these awesome blogs and throw a sympathy vote my way, would ya?

Until next time, just remember, IT'S OKAY TO BE DIFFRENT*, er, DIFFERNT ;) 

[diffrent: when you pay a different rent then you and your landlord agreed upon. "C'mon, man. I told you the rent was $50 a night, not $45. Don't be pullin' no diffrent action!"]

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