Exploring Mural Making
Over the last few years I have been involved in the creation of a number of murals in my corner of the state of Pennsylvania. Each mural project has had unique aspects and through this blog I will try to explain the process of their creation.
In looking back at my history with murals I realized that my first experience came in 8th grade when I was asked by my American History teacher to create a mural on one of her bulletin boards. She gave me the latitude to select any historical event. I chose to depict the Boston Massacre inspired by the famous etching done by Paul Revere.
Many years later this choice became ironic in that I realized that while exploring my own heritage I discovered that one of my relatives, a Doctor Thomas Young, the husband of Molly Winegar, was blamed for fomenting the insurrection that led to the massacre.
I learned through this mural that images of scale can be very powerful communicators of history and events.
Throughout High School I collaborated with some very talented artist friends and created large scale murals for our junior and senior prom. The junior prom was a jungle theme achieved by creating a lush scene of tropical foliage and jungle animals ala the painter Henri Rousseau.
The theme of the senior prom was based on the Egyptian temple Abu Simbel. Both of these murals covered the collapsed wall of both sides of our gym's bleachers which were 80 feet in length and 10 feet high.
In 2008 I was hired as an Art Instructor at the state maximum security prison, SCI Fayette. One of my first projects was to work with three inmates to create an 11 foot by 22 foot mural for the kids' corner of the facility's visitors center. The inmate's design incorporated a number of learning experiences for the visiting children including numbers, the alphabet, shapes, colors, historical events and some of the kids' favorite animals and cartoon characters.
While at the prison I was asked to work on a historic mural for the town of Brownsville PA. My inmate artists were a bit intimidated to tackle something of this scale, a 20' x 40' image. I told them that we would break it down to doable steps. They dug into the project and in the end they were very proud of their effort and contribution to the community. Images of the "Cast Iron Bridge" mural will come later in the blog.
For the past couple of summers I was hired by the Douglass Education Center in Monessen PA to conduct a summer workshop on mural painting with students from the region. We have done two murals with this organization with images and info later in the blog.
Over the last few years I have been involved in the creation of a number of murals in my corner of the state of Pennsylvania. Each mural project has had unique aspects and through this blog I will try to explain the process of their creation.
In looking back at my history with murals I realized that my first experience came in 8th grade when I was asked by my American History teacher to create a mural on one of her bulletin boards. She gave me the latitude to select any historical event. I chose to depict the Boston Massacre inspired by the famous etching done by Paul Revere.
Many years later this choice became ironic in that I realized that while exploring my own heritage I discovered that one of my relatives, a Doctor Thomas Young, the husband of Molly Winegar, was blamed for fomenting the insurrection that led to the massacre.
I learned through this mural that images of scale can be very powerful communicators of history and events.
Throughout High School I collaborated with some very talented artist friends and created large scale murals for our junior and senior prom. The junior prom was a jungle theme achieved by creating a lush scene of tropical foliage and jungle animals ala the painter Henri Rousseau.
The theme of the senior prom was based on the Egyptian temple Abu Simbel. Both of these murals covered the collapsed wall of both sides of our gym's bleachers which were 80 feet in length and 10 feet high.
In 2008 I was hired as an Art Instructor at the state maximum security prison, SCI Fayette. One of my first projects was to work with three inmates to create an 11 foot by 22 foot mural for the kids' corner of the facility's visitors center. The inmate's design incorporated a number of learning experiences for the visiting children including numbers, the alphabet, shapes, colors, historical events and some of the kids' favorite animals and cartoon characters.
While at the prison I was asked to work on a historic mural for the town of Brownsville PA. My inmate artists were a bit intimidated to tackle something of this scale, a 20' x 40' image. I told them that we would break it down to doable steps. They dug into the project and in the end they were very proud of their effort and contribution to the community. Images of the "Cast Iron Bridge" mural will come later in the blog.
For the past couple of summers I was hired by the Douglass Education Center in Monessen PA to conduct a summer workshop on mural painting with students from the region. We have done two murals with this organization with images and info later in the blog.
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