Bridlewood
I worked with the Kindergarten - Grade Five community at this 520 student school over a six month period. During this time we explored and developed a public art project for two utility boxes and one garbage bin in the Bridlewood community.
The focus of the year was "What Do You Do With A Chance?" based on a book of the same name by Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom.
During session one, different groups of students explored what an artist must consider when creating public art. A bulletin board in a common area was used to compile and share student thinking about this art making practice and how to work on the project collaboratively.
During session two, students explored the art materials of watercolour paint on paper, and graphite pencils. These were materials the illustrator in the focus book had used.
During session three, students responded to the staff generated question, "How Does the Community of Bridlewood Take Chances?"
In both sessions two and three, a collaborative process was used where one group of students would lay down watercolour washes and a second group of students would add graphite marks in response to the question and to the paintings the previous group had done.
I took all the student paintings and composed large canvas panels that I had digitized and printed at outside sources.The original art work remained at the school and the digitized copies were installed by the printer who produced them.
Click the thumbnail below for full-size image.
Utility box #0910 at Bridlewood Road and James McKevitt Rd SW Calgary. Work of half the student population is represented on each utility box.
Close up of work on utility box.
Garbage bin beside Bridlewood School. Images from both utility boxes (work from all the students) was reduced to fit on these surfaces.
Utility box #0889 at 162 Ave and Bridleridge Way/Eversyde Blvd SW Calgary. Each stripe of colour represents a specific response to the guiding question. For example, one stripe depicts responses to the question "What does it mean to be Courageous?" Text on the top lip explains all the student responses to "How Does the Community of Bridlewood Take Chances?"