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MOREart! project progressing Date published: 4/28/2007
By LAURA L. HUTCHISON
Boxes of crayons sat on tables, each with large type proclaiming "64 DIFFERENT colors." The students waiting to use the colored globs of wax were nearly as varied. Different ages, different ethnicities, different genders and backgrounds. They have two things in common: art and a desire to promote understanding and diversity in the community. The students are members of the MOREart! team, which is creating a 31-foot-wide, 8-foot-tall mosaic mural that will be installed on the back of a warehouse building at Roxbury Farm and Garden Center in Fredericksburg. The mural will be visible from Jackson Street. The group has been meeting weekly since February to begin creating pieces indoors that will then be applied to the building the week of June 18. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, as the trees were beginning to green outside, the large leaves that are a featured component of the mosaic design were also getting green. "It's really interesting to see it coming together," said Krystle Demboski, 16. It's not an easy process. First, 31-foot strips of paper were laid across the stage at the original Walker-Grant School. The design was outlined in black and white. The students needed to color in this pattern, called a "cartoon." Hence, the crayons. The mosaic contains 23 different colors, plus mirror shards, and black and white glass "globs." Once colored, the cartoon is separated into 20 blocks, taped to boards and covered with plastic, then mesh. Mosaic tiles are smashed, then applied to the mesh, according to the color on the cartoon. The mesh will be stuck to the building's walls in June. The background of the design, a sea of blue, will be directly applied to the walls. "We have a lot to do," said Joy Cunningham, 14, looking down at a leaf taking shape on a board she shared with Ashley McNeil, 13. Ashley was snipping thin strips of black tile into pieces that would be the leaf's outline. When Angus Hamilton, 14, was given similar strips to cut, he looked at them quizzically. "They look like burnt French fries," he proclaimed. And as the mosaic has begun coming together, so have its artists. And that's the point, said artist Suzanne Moe, who created the project. "The art team is working together beautifully," Moe said.
Date published: 4/28/2007
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