Gallery
“Community Spirit — Helping Hands”
Right- Sponsor
- Grabill Bank
- Artist(s)
- Memorial Park Middle School
In the Artist’s Words… Sherry Schaffer and I, both art teachers at Memorial Park Middle School, explained the project to our students and solicited their ideas for the design. Leah Schoenle, grade seven, remembered artist Elizabeth Murray from our study of 20th century painters. She had used large, colorful, contemporary hands in her work. We also looked at hands in works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jacob Lawrence, and even Mickey Mouse. I designed two types of hand shapes and overlapped the patterns until they covered the mastodon’s body. Sherry developed the color scheme. Three students (Lauren Patton, Cecilia Horn, and Taylor Jaxtheimer) helped us paint the mastodon as did our media teacher, Erin Patton-McFarren.
