Face2face.

For the elective term of my Junior year I decided to join the If These Walls could Talk course. This class lets us explore the history of murals,and the different techniques used to create them. The first 2 units were there to prepare us for the 3rd final action project, which was to actually create a mural. We were put into groups of 5, which meant that our diverse ideas had to come together to create one. At the end, my group members and I agreed to make collaged faces that feature the different facial features of students at GCE. The background would be stenciled mandala flowers filled in with spray paint, along with silver and white block print. Before agreeing on this, sometimes we wouldn't all be able to agree on an idea, which created a challenge. We got through that with some good communication. I'm proud of how hard I worked when it came to actually putting the mural together, even going to the length of coming in on a weekend to work on it. I hope you enjoy reading my artist statement below, along with my personal reflection video!



Artist statement
 The purpose of my group mural is to highlight the unity within the student body.We did that by creating collages that feature the many different facial features of students at GCE. We created stencils of mandala flowers and block-prints to create a background. On top of the stenciled flowers and block-printed pattern, we wheatpasted the collaged faces we created. The faces are in black and white, so we added color by spray painting the stencils in red, gold, black, and white. The block print done in white and silver creates a wallpaper-like backdrop. Before we started, the walls by the staircase were a very boring green. After our transformation you’ll come face2face with some weird looking faces that’ll get you to wonder for a bit. You’ll also be amazed by the stenciled mandala flowers. It was an interesting journey as we worked through all this. There were a couple changes as we were working, but we knew they had to be done in order for us to be totally happy about our art. For the first 2 days of working on this mural, I was the artistic director. It was my job to critique and watch over whatever any other of the members of my group were working on. The 2nd job I had was being the mule. It was my job to get whatever materials my group needed. My 3rd job was being a documentarian. I was the one taking pictures of the progress of our work. I didn’t really enjoy being the artistic director because that was my job for the first day, and there really wasn’t anything that I was able to critique. I enjoyed working as the mule the most because I was quick on my feet, allowing me to stay energized while working on the mural. Although mostly everything ran smoothly during the creation of the mural, I would have liked to change one thing. It would be for everyone to be a little more open to other people’s ideas. That was the one thing that was holding the group back and created some temporary bad energy within us. It was a bit of a drag to work on a mural with a bad mood, but once that energy was removed, it was way more enjoyable. We got to that point by understanding everyone’s idea and listening to what each member had to say.
Personal reflection of the proccess script
In the If These Walls could Talk course, we studied the history of murals and the different techniques used to create them. For the final action project, the class was put into groups to create a mural that is going to take up some space in the new building. My group and I worked hard to create weird yet interesting looking collaged faces. Once we got into the space we’d be working in, the real fun started. To me, the most exciting part was collaging the faces. I had many laughs as I mixed everyone’s diverse facial features. We did all the not so fun parts like scrubbing and taping the walls off in the new space first, and then we were able to paint. The painting part was very relaxing. Once all that was done, the cool part had finally came. We were able to spray paint the flower stencils on the wall, along with stamping the block prints. Once the first stencil was spray painted, I got the boost of confidence we needed because we knew it was going to come out looking very cool. It was my first time spray painting and I enjoyed it very much, I also found it to be relaxing.