Since the start of the semester, Chelsea Carver, the art teacher at the Cartersville campus, has worked with a group of students to create a mural in the Veterans Affairs and new MIC area of the Administration Building.
Three students from Carver’s class are involved in the making of this mural: Cameron Brown, Alyssa Jones and Kyle Garriga. Each of these students has joined Carver’s class to broaden their art skills and move forward in their educational pathways.
“A lot of our art students go into Kennesaw, and this is helping them expand their repertoire to better follow their path in the arts,” Carver said.
Art student Alyssa Jones standing next to her favorite part of the mural, the Charger horse.
Dean Leslie Johnson and Carver, along with the students in the class, collaborated on the design that they wanted for the mural. Once the design was approved, they started working on it. The completion of the mural is scheduled for the end of the semester in December at the latest.
The design chosen for the mural is a vintage postcard showing the words ‘greetings from Georgia Highlands,’ alongside the Chargers horse with various other pictures throughout. This mural is meant to serve as a photo wall where people can take pictures for social media.
The concept graphic for the finished mural.
Dean Johnson approached Carver with the idea for this mural during the summertime. She assigned this project to her new Applied Studio Practice class, designed to help make the process easier for students transitioning to another school. The mural allows these students to learn how to work together and problem-solve.
The paint they use for this mural is a water-based enamel paint. It is long-lasting, quick to dry and has low volatile organic compounds (VOC).
Students prepare to use paint supplies at their mural station for the Applied Studio Art class.
“We hope that the viewers interact and take photos with it,” Jones said. “We hope it brings them joy and shows all of the things we have to offer here at Georgia Highlands.”
The biggest challenge with this mural was getting the concept picture from the page to the wall. They first tried using a projector in hopes of being able to outline it from there, but that technique did not work. The students then made a grid on the wall using chalk and sized everything according to the grid.
“We learned how to size things up specifically for this mural on a larger scale than we have before because we are doing it on such a large wall,” Brown said.
