Art Occupation - Painting

I teach at a K-12 Montessori school in Milwaukee. A concept that can be found in many Montessori schools is something called "Occupations". The idea behind this is that student should spend a period of time developing skills that will help them in a job someday and will help them contribute to their school community. These are things like learning to work with other people, learning to take responsibility for your work, learning to contribute to a larger group, and learning real life skills. One of the goals of this Occupation is that students will eventually run it themselves.

At my school we do our Occupation every Wednesday morning instead of having regular classes. The Occupation that I run is art related. We are in charge of designing and painting murals on the walls in school and making the props and backgrounds for the school play that will take place this spring.

One project we are working on is painting a mural on the wall outside the art room. Our art room is located in the basement of the building, and the hallways around it are very bare. We studied the art of Keith Haring, who has made many murals and art that is inspired by Pop Art and graffiti art. We choose him because he makes art that is very colorful and uses simplified human forms.

To make the mural, first we had to plan out what we wanted to do - each student drew two figure in different positions and colors, then we drew them out all together so you could get an idea of what they would look like in the hall. We then wrote a proposal for the principal to give her an estimate for the timeline, supplies that we would need, and our drawing.

We have started the mural on the walls. We made a giant "paper doll" type of template with limbs that move, taped it up on the walls, then outlined it with pencil. After that, we are painting the bodies in with a color, then outlining the bodies with black. Eventually there will be a floor painted behind the figures and other things in the background.

 Planning our mural.

 Presenting out ideas to the Principal.