It's about time!! »
Sorry for the delayed post for this final installment. I would like to thank a few of you who reminded me to get it done. Well the final day of painting was a party in itself. I my students were feeling really comfortable with themselves. Some of them took the liberty to paint their entire faces. I don’t know if I could do that… but hey, what ever floats your boat. I’m very surprised on how fast this mural was built. Within a three week period we were able to go from an idea, to a sketch, to a final draft and then to the wall. I hope my students understand that they were a part of something great. I know I was. Thanks you guys!
The finish line is near »
The details are starting to fall into place. My students are feeling really comfortable with themselves and the group. They are working at such a fast pace that I sometimes have to think of new ways to keep them busy. My students are the cats pajama’s! As you look at the pictures below, you can see the finish product peaking out from the scaffolding. the orange group had the challenge of making that rainbow as clean as possible.
My red group started to understand the importance of tones as they had to readjust the shades of the tree and snake. I mentioned to them that all the forms needed to be distinct from one another so that wouldn’t guessing as to what the viewer was seeing.
The blue and purple group were chugging right along with minor changes. I told them that this was it. This is where the idea was coming to life…so no messing around!
We keep moving »
The color white was here and it allowed for all the tones to follow. I created color charts for each picture frame. I wanted them to understand what colors they needed for their sections and I wanted them to depend on themselves for creating colors. I always told them that I’m not responsible for the micro-management of their projects. That was to be their land of rule. I prescribed everyone into 4-6 groups to tackle the wall. I had people working on the sky scene, tree-horizon line, the green banner and the picture frames.
I had to make sure that my students were being very definitive in their fill-ins and outlines. I did not want the mural to be good from far but far from being clean. I wanted all colors to meet where they were supposed to; and I wanted the colors to be solid… not porous from the cinder block surface.
I also wanted them to be in total communication with each other…
And as the day grew darker I noticed that everyone was still here. They are Diehards!
you can see the tree line coming into effect and everybody is noticing their small sketches coming into grand reality. I taught them in the beginning that we were not going to do gradients and fades. I thought this would be too challenging to some and it would leave the mural to unexpected risks. So my peoples in the red group tried to sneak some fades into the painting… sorry guys… gotta stick to the program.
the first night of real painting was an astounding one. I can’t believe we did this all in one night. At this point I knew we were golden to finish in time. From here on out… it was going to be all about tightening the painting over and over again.
NPR KLCC interviews the students and I »
[audio:http://frustr8.com/ikmb/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/mural_npr_klcc.mp3]
My students and I were interviewed by KLCC/NPR about the mural. It was a chill day for an interview.
the first to speak was Melena. Scott was second, followed by Helms…after him was jennifer and Barbara. The girl on the left of the two is Lilly. Nicole was next and then Kirby was the last to say his thing.
Everything is ready…wait, what the? ummm….. »
Well let’s see… Brushes, check. Containers? check. All colors accounted for? Yup! Okay….I got my black….wait a minute! Where’s my white??!?!??!? The good people at Nova color did their job perfectly. It looks like UPS messed up the delivery. After talking to Nova color; they said that they would ship my 5 gallon of white next day air and which ever shipment came first we would accept. The other would be denied and returned to sender. I love their paint and there service is second to none! Thanks you guys!
But that still leaves me with a bunch of students that are hungry to paint. I had to think about what I was going to do. The color white is very crucial and not having it meant we were very, very, very limited in what we could do today. I had to tell my students the deal and get them on my level of concern.
All hope wasn’t lost. It actually worked out for the best because I had my students outline the initial sketch and get them to tighten up or ask questions about unclear lines. Another thing that was cool; was that some of my students hadn’t touched a paint brush before and this was going to be their introduction to painting 101. With that in mind I briefed them on what kind consistency they should make their paints. I taught them how to load their brush with paint…yadda yadda yadda. I knew everyone was getting excited so I let them go to the wall with their brushes.
I must express again that NOT having the color white for our first day was probably the best thing that could happen for to us. Let me explain: They knew and developed the sketch. They were able to trace it the night before and today they had to re-outline it. I believe this gave them greater familiarity with the mural’s design. 
Every so often I would walk back and view the wall. It was really cool to see scaffolding and all my students working simultaneously. They were under my guidance, but honestly; they were doing it on their own.
The great white wall and my tiny army!!!! »
What do you do when you see something like this? Do you run in the other direction? I wouldn’t recommend that. We have a job to do. my art army showed up with a lot of excitement. This was the day that they were waiting for. But hold on…it’s not like you can just go up to the wall and paint. Prior to even painting we went over the final draft. We visualized our plan of attack. I reminded them that we must start from the furthest background and move to the foreground. The next thing we needed to do was lay out our grid. We were working with 3″ squares in paper and now they were going to have grid the wall in 3 foot intervals. 3 inches to 3 feet is a wicked challenge. It was even more of a challenge to get the snap line tools to work properly. The first problem we ran into was the color of the chalk, which was peach. Now how are we supposed to make distinguishable straight lines when the chalk lines blend in with the wall? I send a person to the local hardware store to pick up a blue color. Now everything should work out, right? Wrong!
We get hit with knots in the line. These are 100 foot snap lines. This is supposed to be the easiest thing to do… but nooooooooo. So we have to buy some new ones. We were lucky because I really needed the night time for the projector. So while all this was going on we still had hours to spare. I had to remind myself about that aspect. Once we got everything in order I had my students working together flawlessly. They kept themselves in check by making sure all lines were even and perpendicular.
After the grid was complete we had to play the waiting game because were going to project the image on to the wall using a high powered image projector.
My students were starting to understand what was happening. They saw why the grid was important and knew that the projected images needed to fit within certain squares. Armed with contractor crayons they went to the wall and started to trace the images. We had to do it in sections so part of the challenge was lining up the new projected image with the previously traced image. When you have this many people working together… the challenges we encountered were mere speed bumps. This evening was all about getting the grid up and attaching the image to that grid. My students are the best!
The final draft »
After a week long brainstorm session it looks like we have all come to a concise example of what the mural is going to look like. I’m really excited about this poject. Within a couple of days the wall will be primed; the scaffolding will be erected and paint will be ready for us to use. Everyone is excited!
My students work together to produce a single consciousness »
In order to get my students on the same page I had them get into groups and bridge their ideas together. They had all agreed on a concrete list of themes. They were recycling, friendship, freedom, music and polar differences. Below you will see them drawing around the theme and then combining their ideas into a single image. With 13-15 students, this worked out really well for those that were good with ideas and not drawing and visa-versa.
Each of these have a title to go with the picture frames. Kind of like a gallery within the mural.
This one is called the “Reusable Rainbow Parade” and features a rainbow coming from the recycling bin. I like it and my students were really psyched when they put this one together.
The next one is called, “Field trip to Nirvana” and features a school bus going surrounded by fish flowing through the river. I was really impressed with the visual metaphor, “school of fish”.
This next one is almost a commentary on society…it’s called, “Opposing reflections of a universal atmosphere”. I’ll let the image tell the story.
the final image is of a bird and snake becoming friends. I don’t have the earlier images that lead up to this final comp…. but I really love the title, “unlikely friendships”.
Bridging the ideas together »
The challenge has been bringing multiple ideas into a cohesive design. There were many ways I was thinking about doing this. We thought about painting roadways to connect the many aspects of the town. We thought about wavy lines to tell the story. There were many avenues to choose from. I brought up the idea of painting picture frames into the frame of the mural itself. I wanted this to be the structure because I felt that it would empower my students to think big yet keep it contained within certain areas. The mural is 75′ x 15′ and the shear size of it can intimidate a long brush stroke. With this plan I felt it would satisfy both the students and I the director.
The harmony of this piece is brought together through the continuity of the tree and horizon line. Trees are a big part of Oregon culture. With this as the background I”m sure that it will appeal to a broad group of people. This is important to me and I have mentioned to my students that when they paint, they must take responsibility for their community when they paint. We are looking for ways to include as many people as possible.
The biggest thing that my students wanted to show was their love for music. We all agreed and made it the focal point of the mural. As we started thinking about the visuals for this aspect we came up with many elements to contend with. It was almost too many. I thought to myself what would be the most exacting aspect of music…. the beat. I explained to my students that without the drum…without the heartbeat, where would the music come from? it’s built inside us.
I provide the frame work and they build the house. They wanted people to be dancing on the drum itself. I’m all for that! Let it be done!
The final aspects of the painting were the sun and moon. The depiction of Yin and Yang…the visuals of polar opposites in life. The final visual was the banner that would encompass the painting from above. A tattoo aspect that they all wanted. It will be the grand title of the piece which will have the words, Emerald City. A phrased used to describe the green-ness of Eugene.
The sketch below was put together by my student Jake. He took the opportunity to give me the context of this harmonious background.
During this whole process I had my students work in 4 groups for the four sub-themes of the mural. As you can see in the picture above….the red crop-marks denote the areas for the sub themes.
Youth Mural Collective, Eugene Oregon »
Okay, Okay, Okay…I’ve been keeping this on the back burner even though both of my feet are planted in this program as we speak. I was hoping that the Press Release would be out by now; but it’s not. Here is a little run down as to what is happening at this moment (this was synopsis given to the media outlets) by the PR firm.
Lopez will work with a team of transitional youth between 15 and
24-years-old to produce a mural at Metropolitan Affordable Housing’s
WestTown on 8th housing community. The young artists will receive a
stipend for their work paid for through a $10,000 grant from the Lane
County Department of Children and Families’ Youth Action Board.
The transitional youth, often blamed for downtown problems, have been
the driving force behind this public art project. The young people will
plan the mural and do all the painting work, under the guidance of Lopez.
There is a planning session on Monday, September 8 at 5 p.m. when the
muralist, participating youth, and representatives from Metro,
the WOW Hall, the Youth Action Board will meet to discuss the mural project.
Okay now that you got that; yesterday was my second day of working with my students. My group is about 13 students who come from high school, public housing and every where in between. There are a lot of people of on all sides of this program that got there fingers involved. The University of Oregon film/video club is documenting this project. They have been there with me everyday and will do so until this project is finished. One of my students will be blogging about this on his site (I will give that info as it becomes available) as well. Many companies are coming together to make this mural a reality. The reality is 75′x15′ outdoor mural! Yes, O. M. G. We have 20 days to complete this mural. Each day is crucial and my students know this.
My first day was a great awakening as I noticed that my students had tenacity to look for their creative voice. Our first day was spent going over artistic language. Tint, contrast, primary colors…etc. Soon after, we started brainstorming. Words covered many sheets of paper which gave us ideas to begin doodling. I wanted them to draw as soon as I got them in class. After they were finished I had them look at their classmates work and talk about it. This was where I started to feel comfortable because the flood gates opened wide. A second draft of their drawings were done so that I could see a clearer vision.
The pictures that I have below were of yesterdays class (I don’t have pics of the first day). In these photos we are creating a concrete outline of what we want to see in the mural. Everything is put to a vote. I remind that this mural needs to be concise so that we do not think outside of our own time constraints. Certain ideas and visuals get put to rest because of this.
We then dive into our own concepts utilizing our new outline. The new pictures are put up on the wall and discussed again. This was were students came up with awesome visuals and ideas. I took those home and I made the framework to house these ideas….I hope they like what I put together.
