Kent's Hill Park School Mural
Instagram is an amazing thing. I know so many people hate social media and what it does to people, but I for one have only had positive experiences online. I have surrounded myself with an amazing bunch of people who are super encouraging and only seem to cheer people on.
One of those amazing interactions was with Erin. She messaged me aaaages ago asking if I would be ok with her using my work for the kids to be inspired by the things I do and make their own art based on mine. I obviously was sooo flattered that anyone would want to study me at school! What an honour!!!
Since then, Erin and I have been chatting loads, she has come to my classes and is an all round lovely person. So when she asked if I would be up for painting the primary and secondary school she teaches at I was soooo up for it.
We decided the best way would be for me to come and run 2 workshops with the kids. One with the primary school and one with the secondary school. Bearing in mind I’ve never been in a classroom to run workshops with kids, I was pooing my pants!! But I can safely say, no poo was made, and it was great!
They were soooo enthusiastic and had such great ideas. It’s always so inspiring to see what kids make because their brains just work in such a different way. They see things in ways I would never see them and give me new ways of seeing. Something that I thought would bring out particular outcomes, came back to me with amazing results that I would have never thought of.
After these sessions I went back home to my desk and looked at each collage and drew out sections that really spoke to me. Starting off with the primary school collages, I looked at what tied them altogether and saw what the themes needed to be. It was important for me that the kids saw their collages come to life, so that they would feel like a big part of the process.
Then taking all the bits from each collage, I drew up sketches of what it could look like. It needed to be playful, colourful, exciting and most of all, make the primary school look like an inviting place where kids would want to come to school. But essentially I knew that I would see what it was like when I got there. I work best when I don’t have a rigid plan and can be flexible, because it can be very different when you actually get to a space and realise that what you had initially thought, might not work out.
Getting to the giant blank canvas I was daunted by the scale of it! Pictures are always so different to real life. I had to take a big breath and just start. Sketching out the whole design onto the wall I was able to see if my idea would work and if the scale was right. Luckily… it was!! Then working my way through the mural I started with one colour and filled in all the shapes along the wall that needed that colour. Next colour etc. until the main body of the mural was done.
The kids would come and visit me every break and lunchtime to see what I was doing. Ask me a million questions like who my mummy was, who my teacher was, what year I was in hahaha best questions ever! I would get them to pick the next colour and would show them what I was doing. Imparting so wisdom to them, hopefully inspiring them and getting them to see that there are other career paths in the world out there.
Once the main parts of the mural were done, I was able to add in the finishing touches like the smaller squares in the middle of of the other squares, add in extra little bits here and there to really make it come to life.
And then…….. it was done!!!!!!!!!!! Tadaaaaaa!!!!!!
The parents were sooo enthusiastic and really encouraging, telling me that it had transformed the school and made them happy just walking towards it. They told me their kids hadn’t stopped going on about the artist that was at the school and I was the hot gossip on the streets! They took their pictures with me and congratulated me on my work.
The teachers and staff were all lovely and said it now felt like a primary school.
Mission complete.
My aim for the project had worked out brilliantly and I was so happy to have been able to help the school feel like a school.