My Favorite Mistake
Who: Abby Boykin
Role: Fine Arts & Enhancements Coordinator
My favorite mistake was in my second year teaching in the 2011-2012 school year. I was teaching at Corinth Holders High School and this happened in my Intermediate (Art 2) class. My students and I had just learned about graffiti art and modern ways to do that, such as pixels. We also just learned about creating art from them through image editing software. Students in groups, researched famous artists and the impact they made on the world of art. They had to sum their artist up with one positive message or quote to also include in their work. We also had the idea to pixelate images of the artists and size the pixels similar to the size of bricks on the side of our school building. The pixels were color-gradiated in the online program to the colors of chalk that was available in the classroom, which was mostly pastel colors.
We were granted permission to place these murals on the outside of the school as an advocacy piece for the arts from our principal. My kids were stoked and I couldn’t wait for them to transform before us. Colors were thoughtful and planned out, grid systems were marked on the brick walls. Pixel-by-pixel, students colored each brick until row by row the artist transformed and then the quote.
Now, though not evident from up close, standing back was an amazing experience. So amazing that in order for them to last longer, I had the great idea to spray them with hairspray. So I bought 15 cans and we used every drop. Every frugal art teacher knows that hairspray is a cheap fixative for chalk. In my mind this was an excellent idea that would prolong the murals life.
Little did I know that the brick was unprimed, the hairspray acted as a sealant and that it required 4 hours from my husband and I to power wash them off many weeks later. I did not tell my students this (unless some of them are now teaching there). They assumed they washed away.
This unfortunately was a deterrent from doing this again. Not just because of the hairspray but because of the amount of chalk we used. However, now I know I could write a grant and if I could go back, I would! I would do this lesson all over again. I would not however use hairspray.
When it doubt, never use hairspray unless it’s paper, or big hair.
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| My students in front of the Keith Haring mural. |
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