{WCAP} Hero Mural Progress!

Since my original post about returning to Waukesha Community Art Project we have been very busy on our HERO MURAL! Here are some of the photos of our progress! First, our kids chose heroes/heroines based on a long list of significant social issues that we brainstormed together. After learning about their lives, we determined what their OBSTACLES and ACCOMPLISHMENTS were/are. Then, we converted these ideas into symbols. Our first project was to create a stamp using styrofoam plates and/or carved foam board as block prints of the heroes' accomplisments. Next we began a series of drawing projects on colorful paper using SYNECTICS a very interesting way of creative seeing, to create our own patterned paper, that we would thenceforth cut down to create quilted boarders for our portraits. Quilts have a symbolic significance that represents community! Not only do they visualize how the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" (gestalt) but they take a whole lot of time to create and in the process invent the meaning of working for a greater good. Our students learned how quilt patterns are invented through a process of paper folding, and created their own inventive quilt squares in the corners of their final works. and finally we were able to use the process of decoupage to apply the newly formed quilts and apply the handmade colored paper synectics patterns in an interesting color scheme and pattern formation along the boarders of the wood. The kids have also been working on wallpaper patterning of their heros OBSTACLES, and we are exploring the ELEMENTS of art and PRINCIPLES of design to translate the pictures of our heros into legible areas of lights and darks for our portraits! Can't wait to see the final results! Stay Tuned! Best, Vanessa Devaki Andrew aka Madam Chino