a great space at R.B. Walter

Our terrific Elementary school has some great places to show student artwork as well as a few prime locations to present some of my own teaching artwork. At the end of one of our main thoroughfares there is a bulletin board positioned where all the students in the school can see it. It is 4ft x 8ft wide. I have slowly taken over the use of this space (without resistance). The site has been used to show multiple art ideas as well as some Life advice. I am currently constructing the board to show perspective/vanishing point along with general illusions of depth on a flat surface. The students love watching it unfold as each of these designs take many hours to bring to a finish. The last one I designed was for this idea that came to me "Live a Life of Learning". I really believe in what Bob Dylan described perfectly as "he not busy being born is busy dying". The last 5 years of my life have been extremely enjoyable in the "being born" sense, mostly due to my wife and kids, but also due to how teaching has me exploring art so much more than in my life prior. I am submerged in it all. Not all that modern Art stuff, but the ideas that make Art special. Art for the sake of making something beautiful. That thing that separates us from the animals. Art is getting more and more simplified in my mind and I like that.

"Live a Life of Learning" was my way of trying to do that very thing myself. A way to really practice what I'm preaching to students. You've got to dive in and then dive right back in again. It should never end.

I wanted it to show that we all should be sharing in this idea like the two characters shown above. I used magenta and cyan and their combination to render the image. I figured any of the graphic design nerds in the audience would understand. No one at the school really got it but they loved the image (which was the whole point). I'm considering some design changes to the layout and maybe seeing if our principal will allow me to make this a permanent mural in another location.