Breaking yet more dishes...

All this week during the Sooke Fine Arts Show , my friend

and mosaic artist extraordinaire Norene Schmuck, is volunteering her time, talent, efforts 

and pounds upon pounds of broken dishes, to create a community based art project.

It will soon grace the front of the public restrooms in Ed McGregor park in Sooke.

A HUGE improvement over the ugly, cement walls which stand there now.

There are even pieces of crockery found on the beach below the park, included in the design.

It is two large panels which depicts people playing music and painting in the park.

People are stopping by from near and far to contribute...

Here's local Hardware guy, Bob, adding his piece...

And from Redding, Northern California, we have Vicki...

She's a real life firefighter on a well deserved holiday celebrating

a significant birthday...

Let's just say her trip is 50 days long...

Local yoga teacher Elise, her kids and mom Sylvia 

got in on the action as well...

My niece Stephanie, is helping with a ladies orange and yellow dress...

 All week long people of all sorts are coming by, admiring and getting giddy

with the fact they they will be a part of this gorgeous piece of public art.

It's part of the 25th anniversary of the art show.

(by the way, that's the work of my boss Karen and co-worker Claire...floral design Queens!)

So if you're in the area, come on down, have a look at some truly FINE art

and break a dish or two while you're there!

The Mosaic...part 3

You could feel the excitement in the school before we even entered the gymnasium.

The mood was festive.

The lineups long.

The smell of cupcakes filled the air.

Today was Poirer's 10th birthday and we were part of the celebration.

The completion of the mosaic, ready for unveiling!

But first, let's find our seats...

Nope, not amongst the sea of smaller ones, but here!

Reserved seating!

Wow! How impressive!

Next it was time for the Principal to speak...

She talked of all the wonderful and crazy things that have happened since the dawn of the school.

From construction site to bear sightings.

From a sea of chaos to the beautiful atmosphere which thrives there today.

Playgrounds that were built and the award winning recycling and composting program around.

How even though the school didn't have much,

they gave to the community and to the children in less fortunate countries.

The kids got up and bravely spoke of why they love their school...

Then the grade 5 class, who worked with us on the mosaic, got up to tell their story...

Then the moment they'd all worked so hard for...

The unveiling of the mosaic!!

The crowd cheered and "oooohhhs" and "aaaahhhhs"were heard throughout the school.

Flowers and cards were handed out to thank us for helping...

...and monstrous amounts of cupcakes of all kinds of flavours were eaten with joy!

But the pleasure was all Norene's and mine.

The class was the greatest bunch of kids.

So enthusiastic, and interested and helpful AND so creative!

Merci  Mrs Campbell and all your kids of the grade 5 French class!

The Project: Part 2...

As mentioned in this previous post , Norene and I have been working 

with the local grade 5 class on a mosaic project.

We didn't know it, but it was also school picture day.

Not individual pictures, but the ENTIRE school picture.

So I figured I would get in on the action, since my nieces go there as well...

Have you ever heard the actors rule "never work with children or animals"?

It was quite the orchestration to say the least...

The photographer was on the roof, so they all got squinty eyed looking up.

Anyway, after the grand picture taking it was down to the dirty work of getting the grout on...

First to mix it to the right consistency...

Grout dust is very fine, so we had them wear masks...they thought this was pretty cool...

There's nothing like getting your hands in slurpy, sludgy, mud-like goop!

...time to spread it on...

You have to work fairly fast with this stuff as it dries quite quickly...

The kids did a really good job getting into all the nooks and crannies...

Then we had to brush and polish before the grout sets completely...

Only two more panels to go this week and the mosaic will be ready to hang outside the school entrance.

I think the kids are super proud of this project and can't wait to see it finished...

Norene has taught them so much about this ancient art form, perspective, colour and using 

multi dimensional art materials...

...and how fun it is to break dishes and get dirty!!

The Project: Part 1...

A few months back, my friend Norene, mosaic artist extraordinaire ,

volunteered her time and talent (and LOTS of broken dishes) to the

local grade 5 students of Poirer Primary school in Sooke.

This class will leave the school this June to go on to Middle School in September.

Their teacher Charmaine and Norene thought it would be a great idea to leave a mark

of their years as students here.

Charmaine, explaining about the project...

The class is french immersion, so I'm scraping together some of my broken french as I listen to

the class conversing.

Ideas!!

 The piece will be a five panel depiction of the school and surrounding community.

It will go here, at the front entrance to the school...

It'll add some colour and fun to the space!

I'm helping a bit with it so I thought I would document it as well as cutting dishes and refilling glue trays.

The first thing we did was to go into the class and get them to draw one picture

each about the school, the village or whatever else the kids thought would show

a story of where they live and what they see around them.

 Norene and I took the pictures home and with the help of her son, Quinn,

we 'interpeted' them 

onto the plywood panels.

Norene and I organized the dish pieces into bags and labeled them so it wouldn't get too

crazy with all the sections and colours of the panels.

This past Thursday we went into the school and continued from last week

gluing, cutting...

The kids are really excited about this project and are doing a terrific job...

Soon we'll be at the grouting stage which should prove to be really fun and messy!

In the meantime, the mosaic is taking shape...

Stay tuned for the next chapter!!