Melina Scotte
Elmhurst, Illinois
My experience working with communities is with different cities that commission murals. They have been mostly ideas requested or specific ideas they wanted to have as a mural. I would then put together concepts and renderings that represent that.
I feel that part of working with the community will be contributing to bringing out the diversity in people, (organizing meetings or a block party in order to invite residents to collaborate, and High School students that are also interested in participating) and ideas and feelings that represent values and subjects that bring unity as a community. This can be accomplished through the design of the mural combining different elements that make us feel represented.
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I am approaching the workshop in these steps: Gathering different ideas and suggestions from the local businesses, schools and local community.
Meeting with the workshop attendees to explain the processes of painting a mural through an Art talk presentation. Here I will be Discussing the different ideas for the design once the ideas are collected from the neighborhood. This can be an open door for people to share what part of the mural they would like to participate in according to their time availability. Everyone can enjoy the process of painting, from transferring the sketch to the wall using a projector at night, to filling in spaces, etc. This will be a great opportunity to find volunteers if they want to participate. I do use different mediums such as sponge brushes, different size paint brushes, rollers with high quality acrylic paint. I typically do not use spray paint.
By using the advice and ideas of the community I will create different concepts and arrange them to present them as renderings. Typically, I would do this by preparing a couple of rough draft drawings/sketches then applying them to Photoshop program to place the rendering onto a photo of the location. I would then present these ideas to the workshop attendees during a meeting before starting the actual mural. This will allow us to discuss ideas together and ensure that the community feels represented appropriately.
Sometimes when working on larger murals, workshops may be broken up over a few days. With people participating in shorter painting sessions of time.
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I have participated in two different projects guiding the direction of a mural. The first one was with adults, we did a mural in a cafeteria for kids. The employees of the cafeteria made suggestions on what they felt would impact the space. These suggestions involved quotes related to drawings, I led the mural and delegated different tasks for everyone involved.
The second mural was done at a children’s music Academy with the help of my Art students. This was a good opportunity to allow the students to be part of the permanent mural. The academy owner wanted a family friendly mural incorporating a piano resonating with music. Leading this project led to a successful accomplishment both felt by me and my students.