Phase III: Design Transfer Cont’d

This week, November 11-15 I continued the transfer design process. I am having so much fun! The children are fun and super active which keeps me and my colleague energized. The school is elementary to middle school so we interact with the little wide-eyed first graders, opinionated “I think I’m grown” 13 year old students and everyone in between. I find that everyone is anxious to paint and so am I. The design transfer process is composed of painting the wall first with sealer, then the base coat, scaling the design (we used the grid method to expand the smaller design proportionately on the larger wall), and drawing the design.

At the end of the week we completed 70% of the design transfer and now need to label each part of the mural to identify the color of each section so the students can paint it as if the mural is a large paint-by-numbers. Check out our progress each day below.

Lessons learned:

• Implement and provide a flexible time frame for projects that involve diverse variables such as weather and children: I have learned that having a steady group of students is valuable and great. This means students are always at school and present. On the other hand they need a structure and a time frame they can look forward to. This project timeline has varied somewhat so I have learned to provide a timeline with a cushion as not to disappoint the students and allow for mishaps.
• Follow your dreams and enjoy reaching your goals: One of the reasons I raised funds for this project was because it is exactly what I am passionate about doing – facilitating artist-lead development projects that allow communities to think critically about who they are and the spaces in which they dwell. I reached my short-term goal and now I am enjoying it and am having a great time painting! I feel immensely grateful.