I just finished the most amazing week at my daughter's school. Every two years they have a celebration of the arts. (The alternate year is all about science.) As I am an art consultant by day, I felt I could take on the challenge of finding artists for the week.
For some it is their first real introduction to art.
Beautiful dancing by the Cincinnati Ballet... really beautiful!
Allie and the dancers... she had her pointe shoes with her and they gave her a signed pair!
I hired dancers, musicians and singers as well as fine artists. Everyday during the lunch, we had entertainment on the stage and artists in the lobby demonstrating their art.
In addition, early in January, the art teachers had the students complete the Chuck Close project I envisioned. The principal was a good sport to agree to be the subject of the painting. A talented photographer on staff took the photo which I had enlarged to accommodate the 800 squares.
We wanted the painted to be large enough for the Close impression. I had calculated that 25 columns and 32 rows would maintain a nice proportion to the photo and allow for 800 individual squares.
Next how to make it happen:
After consulting with a co-worker, I decided to make this painting more like a quilt.
- cut muslin into 4 1/2" squares and gesso-ed the center 3 1/2"
- enlarge photo to the full size and cut it into 3 12" squares
- label each square with a letter and number (row and column) to be able to reassemble
The teachers helped the kids paint their respective squares.
Once I received all of the painted squares,
I assembled the quilt one row at a time,
similar to the way I taught my daughter to quilt.
The finished result is better than I had anticipated.
The painting resembles the principle
and is very impressive as a school project at nearly 10' tall.
Enjoy!
salmonalley 2011
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