Well let’s see… Brushes, check. Containers? check. All colors accounted for? Yup! Okay….I got my black….wait a minute! Where’s my white??!?!??!? The good people at Nova color did their job perfectly. It looks like UPS messed up the delivery. After talking to Nova color; they said that they would ship my 5 gallon of white next day air and which ever shipment came first we would accept. The other would be denied and returned to sender. I love their paint and there service is second to none! Thanks you guys!

But that still leaves me with a bunch of students that are hungry to paint. I had to think about what I was going to do. The color white is very crucial and not having it meant we were very, very, very limited in what we could do today. I had to tell my students the deal and get them on my level of concern.

All hope wasn’t lost. It actually worked out for the best because I had my students outline the initial sketch and get them to tighten up or ask questions about unclear lines. Another thing that was cool; was that some of my students hadn’t touched a paint brush before and this was going to be their introduction to painting 101. With that in mind I briefed them on what kind consistency they should make their paints. I taught them how to load their brush with paint…yadda yadda yadda. I knew everyone was getting excited so I let them go to the wall with their brushes.

I must express again that NOT having the color white for our first day was probably the best thing that could happen for to us. Let me explain: They knew and developed the sketch. They were able to trace it the night before and today they had to re-outline it. I believe this gave them greater familiarity with the mural’s design. Every so often I would walk back and view the wall. It was really cool to see scaffolding and all my students working simultaneously. They were under my guidance, but honestly; they were doing it on their own.

Filed under: Community Art- Eugene Or by admin Date 19 October, 2008