Lynn at Killarney

Killarney_Lynn_Teachers_Kid.jpg, originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

Here I am a couple of weeks ago at Killarney Elementary. The kids are working on designs for the mosaic.

Today, Carlo from Crealde is heading to Tampa to get the infamous Wedi board, a kind of light weight cement board that the artists on the mosaic Yahoo groups recommend. Because there is a concern that the Community Center may one day be renovated, we wanted to make the mosaic on removable panels. This addded a level of complications, but also has some benefits: we can bring the panels to the schools rather than always bringing the artists and students to the site. Wedi board has a foam core, which makes it much lighter than traditional backer board. Since I have to carry these panels to the far reacher of the Killarney campus, I thought it would be woirth the effort and expense (3 times more expensive) to get the Wedi Board. I hope it turns out to be good stuff.

Today I am heading to Crealde, then later to the community center.

Hannibal Square Mosaic Plan

Hannibal Square Mosaic Plan, originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

Here is the black and white drawing ( a 1/6th model) of the design.

Tile Breaker!

Tile breaker, originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

Here is one of the fifth-graders at Killarney breaking up tiles -- great fun!

Crealde Helpers

crealdehelpers, originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

Here is my wonderful team of volunteer artists at Crealde School of Art: Marie, Virginia, Darryl, Heather, Me, and Willy.

These generous, talented,and fun artists all worked together to take drawings done by the fifth-grade students from Killarney Elementary, reduced and enlarged them, and created a master layout. Here we are rolling out a large sheet of photo backdrop paper, kindly given by Rick Lang and the photo department. We (Virginia mostly!) used a grid to transfer the drawings onto this life-sized (10ft. by 18 ft.) version of the design.

Field trip to the site

the kids arrive at the site

In the second week,the core group of fifth-graders from Killarney Elementary School visited the Winter Park Community Center, to see the site, learn about the history of the neighborhood, and to see the Heritage Collection of photographs and oral histories.

Peyer Schreyer, director of Crealde, and a long-time Hannibal Square supporter, shows the students the current mural and talks about the chance to build a new, permanent tribute to the history of this community.

Fairolyn Livingston, Hannibal Square historian, gave a moving presentation on the history of the neighborhood, the 1887 election, her own childhood, and the importance of community pride.
Ron Moore, Supervisor of the Winter Park Community Center, welcomed the participants.Project director and lead artist Lynn Tomlinson helped students brainstorm based on the presentations they have just heard. She asks them to find visual elements to bring the stories to life.

Killarney kids were engaged and come up with some great ideas.
Killarney kids spent some time looking at the images and reading the stories in Crealde's Heritage collection for inspiration.
Several project team members with the ideas the kids generated.

WPCC old mural

WPCC old mural, originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

Here is the current mural on the wall of the community center in Hannibal Square, the historically African-American neighborhood in Winter Park, Florida. You can see that whne they remodeled the building and added a door and ramp, it went right smack in the middle of the mural, which had been centered on the wall. This basically ruined the current mural, which has also faded and peeled in the Florida sunshine.

After thinking of tiling over the current image, and keeping its design intact, we decided for serveral reasons to start pretty much from scratch, using this mural as inspiration. First, since we are going to a lot of time and effort to make it a permanent tile mosaic, and there is a chance of further renovations or remodelling, we plan to build the mosaic on panels that could be removed if necessary.

Second, because of the door placement, we've decided to move the whole design over to the left, between the two doors, instead.

closeup old mural

closeup old mural, originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

This close-up of the current mural shows the problems with the paint peeling and the rough stucco texture that made a painted mural difficult. We do want to keep the child-designed quality and simplicity that this mural captured.

Old Mural Sign

Old Mural Sign, originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

This is the sign posted by the old mural. Our new mosaic will portray the same historical moment as this mural did.