Paint Love for
Marietta High School
Marietta, GA
each panel 12×15′
Marietta High School wanted their first community art project to build connection, to reflect the diversity of their student body, and to inspire personal growth.
Trying to represent every student, with such a wide spectrum of backgrounds, while also needing to accommodate the varying skill levels of the 2,000+ students who would help paint the piece, meant that the design had to be adaptable and inclusive.
Working with Paint Love, the students shared their initial thoughts to inform the design, specifically on how the piece should be “multi-layered,” with “bold shapes, colors, and movement,” and include “symbols that represent different people or things.”
As I worked through various ideas, I began to focus on a single approach. It felt important that the students should be able to freely express their own perspectives, in a framework for collaboration, because the students themselves were ultimately responsible for their own communities.
Students were given an established palette, examples of mark-making, and the freedom to paint as they pleased. The primary emphasis was on the process itself, and not on the end product. The final design was to be completely dependent on the students’ spontaneous creations, with the school’s mascot and logo incorporated to contextualize the work.
Over two weeks, the students navigated interactions with each other and what got painted. Some elements were created in relationship with existing elements. Some elements were completely painted over to make way for new elements. The students were figuratively and literally making marks in their community, alongside each other, to help create a single result.
There are three events that I’d like to note from the experience, as they show how art can be important and can help heal.
- The first is a student who had just lost a loved one at home, and the opportunity to paint allowed her to step out of her grief for some respite.
- The second is a student who initially dismissed my invitations to paint, as he didn’t see the appeal in participating. When he was finally convinced, he couldn’t get enough of painting and didn’t want to stop.
- The third happened during the last week, when a student passed away from an accident. The painting inadvertently became a way for the students and faculty to channel an immense outpouring of love and sorrow.
Extra special thanks to LaSalle and Stacy Hart of Paint Love for their INCREDIBLE facilitation efforts.