The Mural Project...

There is so much I could say about this project of painting the mural.  I am going to focus on the technical this evening.  My next blog will be more about my thoughts and reactions to the past 10 days here working with the artists. 

We last left off when the two groups had completed their drawings and we were in the process of discussing ways to transfer them to the big wall.  It wasn't surprising they came up with two different methods of doing this.  The morning group made hundreds of tiny holes following the outline of the drawing.  They then taped the drawing to the wall and took a dye powder and rubbed it into the holes.  When the drawing was removed, they had a dotted line to follow that they then filled in with pencil.  The afternoon group emptied packets of dye on the back of the drawing, taped it to the wall and retraced their lines to create the drawing.  They, too, filled in with pencil to make it more visible.  Here are some pictures...

Morning group making holes.

Afternoon group spreading dye.

Stamping the dye through the holes to transfer the drawing to the wall.

Tracing their lines to transfer the drawing to the wall.

We also had to prep our paint by mixing colorant into a mixture of diluted glue and white house paint. This took some time, but this is how they make several different colors from the primary colors we purchased. 

So..are you dying to see the work..the wall with paint..their progress?  I know you are wondering how this all worked out..how they worked together on the wall and the results of their efforts thus far.  I am reminded very often by certain artists how this workshop is already very successful because the artists are engaged, they continue to show up every day at their scheduled time and they work hard.  I am also reminded that this working on one thing together..collectively...is very new.  Painting a mural together is new.   And I see how people are getting used to communicating better with each other.  I have also been encouraging this more and more--almost insisting that it happen.  For a mural project, it is better to plan a bit where the colors are going for harmony, balance, etc.  I found the first group is very good at this...they might not agree with each other all the time, but they discuss.  Yes, because I ask them to discuss, but so what..it is all new to them and I think they see the benefits of their conversations.  I am not sure I care that I am orchestrating it..I just like it that it is happening.  The afternoon group seems to not want to discuss anything but instead attack the wall and react later.  They are actually a day ahead of the other group.  Today they accomplished a lot, but many comments were made to me and not to the person working on a specific area.  They feel more comfortable with me critiquing than themselves.  This is my point of view.  I could be reading it completely wrong.  I have more to say on communication in this workshop, but I will leave it for another time.  I want to post our progress. So here are the two groups working and  their progress as of the end of today.

Morning Group

Morning Group after one day.  This is 2 meters by 5 meters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon Group on their second day.

Both sides as they are currently. The artists decided to make one big mural instead of two.  2 meters by 10 meters.

What do you think so far?  I am interesting to hear from you a bit now...