Collaborative Mural

 During our Spring Break Camp this week we focused on collaborative projects. Kids working together can further the ideas of process over product. The children are less attached to a completed piece if they are working on just a portion of the artwork.  Making a mural is a great opportunity for kids to work together and it makes me smile every time I walk over it.

The key to creating this mural is the paint we used. I prepared the paint mixture using Rangoli powder, which is made in India and is basically colored rice powder. The colors of the powder are celebratory and vibrant. I mixed the colored powder with liquid cornstarch. about 2 tbsp. of powder to one cup of liquid starch.

Using white chalk the children partnered up and traced each other's bodies onto the sidewalk. Each child chose their own pose, whether lying on their back or stomach and whether arms out or up.  We only asked that the kids overlapped each other's drawings and stay within the chalk frame we drew on the sidewalk.



The result is an abstraction of lines, creating all kinds of shapes where the lines have overlapped.

We asked the kids to look for the shapes their body lines made and color those shapes in with any color they wanted.

When the home-made paint dries that colorful rice powder stays on the surface of the concrete. It does eventually wash away. It will stay on our Los Angeles sidewalk for about 2 weeks or so.