This mural was completed by grade 6 students at Kerrimuir Primary School as part of their legacy art project for 2014. It is made up of approximately 400 circular discs, many of them recycled CDs and DVDs generously donated by the school community. The discs vary in size from small to extra large, the largest discs donated from a metal work factory.
Students spent many weeks painting the discs with special weather resistant paints and coming up with various designs utilising their knowledge of line and pattern. Many students chose to mix their own colours using a palette of blue and green, with highlights of yellow and white. Each disc has been carefully hand painted with an undercoat of base colour, followed by unique and wonderfully creative designs once the undercoat was dry. The larger discs were each given an undercoat of spray paint. Every disc was then sprayed with a finishing clear gloss spray for added protection and shine. The trees were hand painted by myself (Emma-Jane) and my friend Alexis. The 400 or so discs were then attached to the branches using liquid nails, each and every one of them carefully placed for optimum visual effect!This mural is just one of three murals that will follow at Kerrimuir over the next two years. Eventually the trees will wrap around the adjacent walls in a full spectrum of colour!I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this project, both those near and dear to me and my colleagues at Kerrimuir who have been so supportive and helpful. I am so very proud of the students and all of their effort and hard work. I couldn't have done this without the assistance and encouragement of others and it's something that I know will be cherished by the community for years to come.
Each year at Kerrimuir the grade 6 students are involved in a collaborative art project as part of leaving their legacy at the school. I am very excited to announce that this year's project will be a large scale mural, made almost entirely from recycled CDs!
Pictured below is the completed project at Reservoir West Primary School, courtesy of artist Max Darby. Max has worked at several schools across Victoria and overseas to create these wonderfully bright and vibrant murals for the community to enjoy. What I love about this project is that it is something that is easily accessible to children and looks so effective once complete. You can also see some photos of our students working hard last week to paint over 150 CDs in one session.
The idea is to create a 'Tree of Life' at Kerrimuir that will continue to grow across the walls of the old bus shelter over the next two years. The walls will be painted and CDs and other circular discs added, starting with the blue/green colour palette for 2014! It is very exciting to see this project currently underway and taking shape in the art room. Over the coming weeks I will be posting more photos of our progress!
If you would like to see more of Max's work online, please visit http://artseducationguru.com, where you can view more of his CD murals and other fantastic projects. Kerrimuir's mural will also appear on this website once complete!
Have you seen our space themed display in the corridor of the main building? It is out of this world! Last week students in grades 2/3/4 made pop out rockets using black paper and decorative bits and pieces. Students learned how to make and attach tabs to 2D shapes to make them three-dimensional. Students also added fiery red and yellow cellophane to their rockets to make them shoot through space! This week students will be constructing comets to add to this display.
Following on from their 2D spacecrafts, students in grades 2/3/4 constructed these amazing 3D spacecrafts from polystyrene blocks. We discussed the difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of art, and talked about how to use the materials to construct and build a 3D spacecraft. Students made use of polystyrene blocks, construction foam, supertac glue, pins, foil, sequins, hologram paper, pipe cleaners and rainbow wire to make their spacecrafts. Students were given freedom to design, create and build their own unique spacecraft without too much direction. These took two weeks to construct and the students were fully engaged in problem solving, creating, making and building in the art room during that time. We are very impressed with the results!
As part of their unit on space, students in grades 2/3/4 made these magiclay space aliens! Students were instructed to create whatever shape they liked for their alien before painting it in bright colours using poster paints. They then added decorative details such as joggle eyes, sparkly pipe cleaners, pom poms, merino wool and rainbow wire. A pyramid shaped spacecraft was also constructed for their alien using paper, glue and scissors. What a fun project!
