Bridgeport students create murals for library

The first finished mural may be hung as early as next week

By Geoff Pursinger

The Times, Oct 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jonathan House / The Times

Sarah Hill (in white sweater), a fourth-grader at Tualatin’s Bridgeport Elementary, asks artist Mark Brody a question during a class on glass mosaics, Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Bridgeport Elementary School will receive a few new splashes of color after Mark Brody gets done with it. A Portland-based mosaic artist, Brody is working with students from the school’s second- through fifth-grade classes to create four glass mosaics which will wrap around pillars in the elementary school’s library.

Children hover over tables in the elementary school’s art classroom, arranging pieces of blue, yellow, purple and orange glass like puzzle pieces.

Brody called the four mosaics a “legacy project” that Bridgeport children will be able to love for many years.

“The kids get such satisfaction out of seeing such a long-term project in the school,” said Brody, who has done similar projects with schools across the Portland area. “They can take real pride in their work, and they get to return and see it. It’s not just there for right now, it’s there for the long term.”

Brody works with each grade for one week, teaching them about mosaics and collaborating to come up with ideas on what the art project will look like, then it’s straight to work.

“We have two days of drawing,” said Brody. Each class is given a theme to work around, and then ideas spring from there.

“I take the kids’ drawings and then make one template to work from,” he said.

From there, the kids cut and place tiny glass pieces on top of the drawing, in a sort-of “paint-by-numbers” for glass pieces.

Children are divided into groups, each focusing on a small piece of the mosaic.

Once the section is done, Brody lays a large piece of clear tape over the top, freezing the pieces in place. From there they are attached to the larger mosaic and, when finished, will be wrapped around the library’s pillars.

1 | 2 Next Page >>