Wanting a colorful decorative art piece for the hallway wall across from the music room in Guthridge School, Principal Kurt Friess approached elementary art teacher Jordyn Shields.
“I gave him some ideas and he liked the idea of self-portraits. I call my idea a school-wide self-portrait collaborative mural,” Shields said. “This is my first mural.”
Approaching the topic with her students, Shields told them about the importance of a collaborative mural and how it builds a sense of community within the school. She discussed with them how they work together to accomplish something, and the pride they can feel in knowing they worked together to do something.
She then went over how to draw a self-portrait with the students.
She provided the students with a simple guide for basic form - head, neck and shoulders - and a facial features guide if they wanted to use that. One other main requirement was that the students try to make the person look like them through basic things like skin color, and length, color, texture and style of hair, so those looking would kind of know whose portrait they are looking at.
Each self-portrait was also to include clothing or other accessories to indicate what the student wants to be when they grow up, so a nurse might be wearing scrubs and have a stethoscope around her neck, or a surgeon might be wearing a face mask and scrubs. Students were also asked to draw two to four symbols, or representations, above their heads to portray their imagined career path. For a veterinarian, it may be something like a cat, a dog, a needle, and a thermometer. A future photographer may draw a camera, a lens, photos, and a portrait light. Shields said she helped students research the tools of their chosen trade if they needed ideas.
“It's kind of like they are thinking about it, or foreseeing it,” Shields said of the career portraits. “It gets them to thinking about what they might want to be when they grow up.”
If students didn’t know, then she asked them to think about some job they thought would be cool. If a student thought for some reason they are not capable of that job, Shields discouraged them from thinking that way.
“I told them reach for the stars. If they want to be an astronaut, then go for it,” she said. “I don’t want students to identify with their economic situation or learning disabilities or whatever. I want them to move outside the box.
“I think it is important at a young age to start planting seeds about them going to college or thinking about what they might want to be when they grow up… that they can do anything they want to. If they have an idea even before they go to high school, something they are curious about, then they can actually gear their classes towards that. … I wish I would have had those seeds planted in my head. I think it is important to get them to thinking about it, not in a pressure way, but just to start thinking about it.”
The students were asked to pic one color from the color wheel to shade in their backgrounds. Shield’s plan from there was to put all the portraits in sequence by color.
Students chatted about different aspects of their careers, or peers’, as they colored their pictures.
Pulling out some completed art, Shields showed portraits of everything from a makeup artist to a someone enlisted in the Army.
“Not only is the project fun, but it meets a number of state standards,” she said.
Mixed amongst the portraits, Shields is putting inspirational quotes from people about things like working hard, focusing on your goals, determination, and not giving up.
“It shows as Vikings we support each other, and work hard, and grow up to accomplish our dreams,” Shields said.
