Mood Inspired Murals

One thing I have really started to enjoy with my special students is making larger projects where they each have a hand in a larger scale project. I have started to try and make one large project a year with my students to display in one of the main halls of our school, for the year.

This project on seasons and feelings was modeled after Ani Hall’s installation, Up Down Around. You can learn more about this installation here http://anihoover.com/artwork/1720639-Ani-Hoover-Up-Down-Around.html.

My students had a blast choosing a season or feeling, learning about that feeling or season and choosing colors to represent chosen feelings or seasons. After making these big decisions, we rolled a long piece of paper down two tables. We had the students sit around the table and passed colors and circular objects around for them to print on the paper. After the entire paper had printed circles, it was time for the BIG fun. I hung each paper from the ceiling and we dipped foam balls in paint and threw the balls at the paper. To this day, I have circles on my ceiling and walls, but great fun was had by all!

To hang the finished piece, I cut down both sides of the work to make it narrow enough to fit through the laminator and then ran it through twice since I planned to hang it for an entire year. I measured the height I needed for our wall, and sewed a sleeve at the top and bottom so I could slide wood in to hang it. I used larger wood on the bottom so it would be weighted down, and used fishing wire to hang the entire piece from the ceiling.

As you can see, great fun was had by all students, the artwork was something all of them could be successful at, all while learning about colors, sharing, printing, shapes and Ani Hoover.