A group of nine Year 11 students have been working together this semester to create the impressive and thought-provoking mural next to the Coleman Walk.
The mural project forms part of the students’ VCE Unit 2 Art study of how artists interpret and present social and personal issues.
The students worked together to create the concept and design for the mural in Term 3 and each student has been involved in painting this mural this term.
The students presented their concept, process and design to me and I was impressed by the inclusive approach they had taken to synthesising their ideas to come up with a cohesive concept and compelling social comment.Mrs Terrie Jones, Head of the School
The students’ mural is a conceptual depiction of the issues of justice and sustainability and the idea of diving into the responsibility of adulthood and life beyond St Michael’s.
“Mrs Vincenzie asked us all to explore our own individual cultures, styles and strengths to come up with ideas for the mural,” said Year 11 student, Lucy.
“We came to the decision that youth activism was really important to all of us and we brainstormed a lot of ideas for how we could best represent this,” said Year 11 student, Monique.
The students were fortunate to work with artist and experienced graphic designer Maddison Kitching (OM 2008), who helped them to turn their ideas into reality.
“The most rewarding thing has been seeing the students dive into something they haven’t done before, painting a large mural in a public and visible part of the School,” said Maddison. “Moving from drawing on paper to a mural can be quite intimidating but the students quickly learnt techniques to assist them and stayed positive throughout the process.”
The students were grateful to Maddison for sharing his experience and knowledge with them and helping to articulate the process of a creating a large mural.
“Working with Maddison was really good, he’s so experienced!” said Lucy.
The mural is almost complete, with the final touches to be added before the end of this term.
It’s fantastic to see our students’ skill and creativity so visibly on display and we encourage the School community to view the mural next time they visit St Michael’s.