After three quick, concentrated sessions, the students in the after-school art class I guest-taught completed this mural. To push them into new territory, I required them to paint images of non-sentient things. We were all pleased with the resulting mural, especially considering the formidable challenges the students faced. First, they had only a short amount of class time to practice painting with cans, design their wall, and execute their plan. Second, out of the eight students whose imagery was included in the sketch for the wall, two didn’t show up for any of the painting days, and others were only able to paint for some of the time due to schedule conflicts, so there was a nucleus of three or four students who really pulled a lot of weight in terms of getting this mural done. Numerous passersby stopped to share encouragement and their appreciation of the students’ work. I’m proud of the students’ effort and the way they worked as a team to complete their project.
-DELVE
