The word is out!

I'm excited to discover people are visiting the school and catching the vision!  Children are positively affected by the way their school looks and we need to come together as a concerned community to do something about it.  The principal and parents at Haskell Elementary School agreed with me and asked me to come in during the summer to brighten up their playground with some color.  It made my day when I got that call!  Con mucho gusto!  The enthusiasm when school opened in September was off the charts and now they are contemplating another mural.  This time we hope to get the whole community involved so they can see they have the power to do for themselves.  

Lesson learned: Pick a wall that is not in full sun if it is summer in L.A.!  February and March are much cooler and the sun feels good.  Only one word comes to mind:  BRUTAL

Enjoying the Fruits of Our Labor

       
        The third mural of our mural grant, entitled "Enjoying the Fruits of Our Labor",  was done with the children during the summer school session.  The outdoor lunch pavilion where children in Southern California eat most of the year was a perfect place to encourage the kids to eat healthy food and reflect on where it comes from.
      

What's one more mural?

       
      This spring we were taken by surprise wahen a group from Ameri Corps came to our school offering to do a community beautification work day.  The plan was to plant flowers, clean up and paint murals with volunteers for about 4 to 6 hours.  Over 150 people showed up and it was quite a huge project.  I met with the planning committee and we decided where they could add murals to the school.  One particular dream of mine was to do a whole section of 10 classrooms in a U shape with a grassy area in the middle.  On this work day the volunteers basically finished the whole background for the ocean, mountains and deserts of California.  

        
      Although this wasn't on our mural schedule we decided that it couldn't wait.  Part of the Ameri Corps agreement was that the city would spray their murals with a clear anti-graffiti coating soon afterward so if we wanted to add anything to it we had to get to work fast!   A week later my volunteer friend Sue and I began to work with the children from first grade on the Ocean mural.  They used brushes, decorative rollers and sponges to add all the detail found in sea life.  

       
       After two long days we moved on to the Mountains mural with the third grade.  They worked enthusiastically chatting about all the animals and foliage that grow in our mountains.

    
  Two more days passed and amidst an early heat wave we were determined to finish  the Desert.  The second grade made this wall their own adding all manner of cactus, animals and texture to the background.

    
           It was utterly amazing to see the transformation of a whole section of classrooms!  Talk about WOW!   The effort put out by some 250 students with 2 volunteers in 36 hours was a real testimony to the school of the power of a community working together with a purpose.

Lesson Learned: Using textured rollers and sponges for painting details adds life to a simple mural and children of all ages can participate.

Where do we all come from?

                                    
         Enthusiasm for beautifying our school was beginning to grow with each new mural.  At the same time budget cuts in the school district made it impossible to pay me to teach art.  The joy of teaching those children art and seeing their enthusiasm and progress made it obvious that I had to volunteer at least one day a week to continue the art program I had worked so hard to establish for two years.  To augment their experience we sought a grant to continue painting murals and were awarded another beautification grant from the city of Los Angeles.  This time it was specifically for doing a number of murals and someone picked the lucky number 7 out of a hat!  That was quite a challenge.  Beginning in March we worked around rain, heat and wind to try to paint on our murals one day a week.  The goal was to have as many children as possible participate in the project to "make it their own".  
        The first two murals were about the history of immigration in the U.S.A.  beginning with the pilgrims and moving on through 400 years ending with looking to the future.  It was done on two walls of adjoining buildings that are visible to parents when they arrive to pick up their children at the garden gate.  One of the fun challenges was to incorporate the pipes that were left on the walls after a retrofitting into the picture.  We even had to have an art history lesson about Diego Rivera while working on the one below!

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Treat Superstars like stars!

Children at Glenwood Elementary meet once a month on the playground for a Superstars assembly where their outstanding attendance and work is acknowledged with a certificate in the presence of parents and friends.  Normally this would be thought of as an exciting moment in the year but the ambiance was just a tad dull for such an occasion.  Now that we at least had the 250 foot mural in the background things were looking up but I thought the beige wall of the building behind the microphone could be used for an appropriate backdrop.  It didn't take very long to get it done in  June, 2009 and when the kids came out for their last assembly they felt like stars on a stage receiving their Emmy awards!  To top it off the Kirk Douglas Foundation had given us a grant for playground equipment that spring and our playground was becoming a very exciting place to be.  Now with the "America the Beautiful" triptych on the handball courts to the left side of the assembly area it is a showstopper!

Lesson Learned:   Get an extension pole for your roller to paint large areas that go high up.  The use the ladder for touching up edges and adding details.  I keep forgetting about the roller! 

Beautification Grant

    The school was so invigorated by the murals we had done that some teachers began to look for grants to continue to beautify our school.  The city of Los Angeles had a beautification program that chose us among 100 grantees to create a garden in the front of the school.  The area had been an unused gated bike yard and an eyesore for years.  Together we worked as a community of children, teachers and parents to transform the area into a garden area with a small platform for performances, benches for relaxing with a good book and planter boxes for classroom gardens. 

         The fourth graders worked on the large garden mural where parents congregate to pick up their children.  Kindergarten children painted the cracked asphalt to make it look like stepping stones while first graders painted flowers on the side wall. As a final glorious touch one of the teachers made a mosaic mural on another wall and the parents built the planter boxes.  The project gives a bright, new look to the front of the school that brings a smile to our faces.

Lesson Learned: Allow children 20 to 30 minutes turns painting no matter how enthused they are...when they get tired or bored it can wreak havoc in moments!

Will you teach art?

I no sooner put in my papers to retire in June, 2007, when the principal sat down with me to discuss the possibility of teaching art part time in the fall.  This was an amazing opportunity to return to my first love, what I had actually trained for but hardly ever got to do.  After watching elementary art programs erode over 40 years from a once a week experience with a trained teacher to an occasional art lesson with the homeroom teacher I really was excited to offer the children art classes.  Teachers were thrilled to receive the support and the children were delighted.  In part, my goal was not only to expose children to basic art skills but to demo for teachers their own collection of art lessons that connect and support everyday curriculum.  For a while this position had a special stipend but as budgets are being cut it will became a "volunteer opportunity", which I will joyfully exercise with the help of another retired friend.  One of the highlights this year was an Art Gallery for Open House for parents to see what kind of art lessons the children are receiving.