Shalom mural part 2

 I first told you about our Temple Religious School mural project in a post a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday, after their model Passover Seder, the kids completed painting on the mural.  Here, above and below, is how it looks right now. 

 First, all empty spaces were filled in with color.  Then, with smaller brushes, the kids went to town! I particularly love some of the happy faces that appeared.

 And lots of fun polka dots and lines!

 The kids are proud, the adults are thrilled, and I am happy.  There's a few things left to be done.  I have a bit of pre-mixed warm colors left, so I thought I'd make a simple frame around it with just brush-thickness strokes of the warm colors.  And I'm strongly considering using black paint to do a small left side and bottom shadow on all the letters to make them pop.  What do you think?  And finally, in the row of blocks below the bottom, or on the side, I want to get all the kids (I think there's about 16 of them) to sign their names, I think in colored Sharpies.  And I'll date it as well.  But if you have any suggestions or advice on how to complete and label it appropriately, please speak up.

By the way, the dove (below) was painted by me and I'm a little disturbed at what a mess he is anatomically, but since nobody else seems to mind, he'll stay as is.  But I still need to put an olive branch in his mouth.  And maybe those raindrops (also my doing) should be eradicated?  Your thoughts?

Anyhow, it's been an absolute delight working with these fun kids, bursting with ideas and personality, and so happy to be painting.  I'm sure we'll do more art projects together in the future!

The Shalom Mural underway!

SHALOM is the Hebrew word for PEACE, and also means Hello and Goodbye.

'Shalom' in Hebrew

So, when my Temple religious school approached me about having the children paint a mural with on the school hallway, the word SHALOM came to mind.  After all, I had also worked with these kids back in September, when we made pinwheels to participate in Pinwheels for Peace.  It seemed a theme worth continuing.

The religious school is very small, currently only 16 children from pre-K through grade 7, plus a few young teens who help out.  There are three teachers; our congregation's Rabbi teaches the older students, and the younger kids are taught by two young women, one who was a religious school classmate of my son! 

Once we got the go-ahead to do the mural, I blocked out the letters on the wall, in Hebrew first, and then in English.  In between the two words, we decided there should be a dove..

 And today was our first painting day!  The kids were terrific, and a teen helper, a parent, a teacher, and the Rabbi all pitched in to paint!  It will be two weeks before we can work on it again (since I'll be in San Diego at the NAEA convention) next weekend.  

This young man (above) was a meticulous painter.  And he's just a kindergartner!!

 The girls above and below are sisters.  The older sister (below), remarked that the paints we were using (Blick acrylics) are indelible!  Pretty impressive vocabulary for a 5 year old!  loved watching the kids make decisions about what colors to use where.  By the way, the lovely letter O above was painted by a young teen who helps out in the religious school. 

 There were several absences in the school today, but the kids who were there all worked very hard.  I loved watching the younger and older children all work together. 

 Below, our Rabbi!

 

 And below, a parent of two boys; she has been doing a lot of organizing and planning for the religious school. 

 The teacher painting in the photo below, is also the mom of the two cutie-pie sisters. 

Hard at work, making decisions together.

 By the way, the warm/cool color idea was mine, as a way to let the kids paint however they wanted and still be able to see the words.  The older boys decided to paint wall blocks in solid colors, but in our next session they will be able to paint patterns and designs on top of the solid colors, still within the designated color framework.  I'm really happy with the way it is working out!!