The Unveiling!

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday to the Far Away Next Door documentary premiere and the Imagine the Places You'll Go! mural unveiling at Cypress!   The event was such a success and it was the perfect way to wrap up a great semester!

A special thanks to everyone who helped out and made this mural possible...

Everyone at Cypress Middle School: Gina Nicholson, Tonya Elliott, Elaine Hawkins, James Watkins, and most of all the Red Zone students!!

At Rhodes: The Art Department, CODA and Liz Daggett, the Rhodes College Office of Communications, and the Rhodes College Office of External Programs: especially Dorothy Cox who the project could not have happened without.

If you couldn't make it on Saturday, take a look at the finished product and the reception!...

 The Red Zone students' 'rule' wall!...

 Thanks to the members of the Rhodes Jazz Ensemble for playing!

Red Zone Rules

 Last Friday, after we completed the ‘Imagine the Place You’ll Go’ mural, the class teamed up with the students from Cypress Middle School’s Red Zone afterschool program to do a special mural on one of the other walls in the room.   Before we began our mural, the students had been working on compiling a set of rules and guidelines for the Red Zone--as a way to both display their rules, as well as have the chance to make their own mark on the walls, we worked together to paint the rules on the wall adjacent to our mural.  The students worked with some of the various colors that we used to execute the other mural in order to tie the walls together.  While we used the projector to position the rules on the center wall, the students were able to take complete artistic integrity on the far left wall.   We really enjoyed collaborating with the students and getting their ideas before beginning the design for our mural, but this session was great because we were able to help out with their own project and see what they could do with a brush!

Today's Mural Updates!

Paint 'till You Drop!

The class has been working so hard these past few weeks, staying extra hours after class and even coming in on Saturday, to get the mural done before the unveiling this Saturday, April 21. The progress they have made is so amazing and it is so rewarding to see the mural finally coming together! We have done a few things to speed up our planning and painting process: the pre-mixed, pre-chosen paint was definitely a plus, as I talked about in the last post, because once we figured out which colors went where on the mock-ups, we were able to easily translate them onto the wall. We also used a projector to create the basic outlines of the images, which allowed us to quickly figure out the exact positioning of each area/continent on the wall; and of course, the time and energy that went into creating the mock-ups beforehand certainly paid off. Well I might be biased, but I have to admit that the mural looks GREAT so far! --but you can see for yourself...
In the early stages with the outlines...
Blocking in the color fields
The yellow wall is one that was painted before, which I mentioned in the last post--there are about six other walls besides the ones we are working on and they are all different, vivid colors--we chose our palette accordingly to compliment the existing walls.

Lucy Gaines working away on Che...
Amanda and Alex painting Africa.
Brannen and Graham tackling Australia...



Devon working on rendering a South American parrot, using bright pink as an alternative to red, to further brighten the space.
Lucy moving on to work on Ida B. Wells, North America's portrait representative.
Our selected paints....and the mess.



Lizz working on the lettering, a font chosen by Brannen.
Antartica has never seen so much color!
The completed Ida B. and Kenny.
We're working on incorporating the columns into the mural as well.

I've given you a preview of the work we have done so far, but you'll have to come to the unveiling Saturday to see the final product!