Choosing a Theme
In the design of the mural, the
advanced students wanted to communicate something real about
high-school experience, and chose
the theme of
“Isolation and
Interconnect-
edness.” This
The manipulated photographs were projected, discussed, and selected as a class. The discussion was valu- able because it wasn’t necessarily the “best” photographs that were chosen, but the ones that, when sequenced with others, showed the most success- ful interpretation of the theme. The chosen photographs were then printed Mural painting provides an excellent opportunity for students to participate in a collaborative
art students on the theme and basic
process, and they presented it to the
intermediate class, using samples
they had created. There were certain
things they presented as options,
such as colors,
actual images,
and layout,
for important
project, making it necessary to
theme was
onto transparency material.
decision-mak-
broad enough
ing (and buy-in)
compromise the concerns of
to allow for a Painting
from the entire
their own artistic egos.
wide variety
After application of a primer coat
class.
of interpreta-
and background color on the wall, a
With every large project, problems tions, and we agreed that it was an
background design was painted in a
will arise that will need to be worked idea that transcended high-school and contrasting color to unify the figures
through. In our case, the original
spoke to universal human experience. and add graphic interest to the mural.
mural site did not work out. After
Then came Mural Night. As the sun
expressing their disappointment,
Photography
went down, we projected the trans-
a group of students walked around
Students took digital photographs
parencies onto the wall and students
campus and discussed every other pos- expressing their interpretations of
traced them with pencil. Once the fig-
sibility, including some truly original the theme, keeping in mind that they ures were traced, the rest of the paint-
ideas that hadn’t occurred to them
were trying to speak for and to their
