Mural Art - Part I

On Mayday, around eight o’ clock, I found an email that told me we needed to change the theme on our mural project from Jazz to Christian. The Christian theme also was to have an emphasis on the bible verse: Psalms 150:3-5 "Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord."

Luckily, we were ending our research about the Jazz concept in color motive and form instead of painting it. The reason why we needed to change the theme is because the SFC requested it so that the mural can be hung on the walls of the entryway. Thus, it would better suit the school’s Christian environment. I love the idea for the Christian theme but due to large amount of time that was given to us for the jazz theme, I prefer that better. Time is crucial in art because with that you are able to research your topic and incorporate it in a beautiful way.
For a long time, the students started their paintings with a white background, glue, and paint. They used a collage system that started from black and altered to white. This gave them a sense of tonal gradation which gives them a better understanding in color. This time, I had the students start from the middle of the light brown and dark brown tonal gradations I had made. For example, the middle tonal gradation of black and white is gray. This gave them an opportunity to learn how to work with different tonal gradations of one color. In fact, this can give a project a monochromatic feel but still hold color as an advantage.
What surprised me with the students visit today was the fact that all of the students came with an excitement and passion. We had the chance to work with mature, rich colors that represent Christian art but also themselves. This differs from all the other work the students have done because it gives them a chance to take a common theme and symbolize that with their individual creativity. It was great as well as wonderful because half of the mural is so far successful.

“This technique of art was created to be the basis and root of a new way of art. Everything else can only branch off.”