Back Home (for a while)

I'm finally back home! The return road trip was long but uneventful. But I've hit the ground running here, as I have several new project applications to get into the postmail and email within the week or so.
The Redmond Proficiency Acadamy students got their mural project off to a good start the week I instructed there. The school set up a "moodle" access for me to stay in touch via the internet between now and when I return to Redmond in late April to facilitate the actual painting. Sometime over the next few days, I'll be posting some photos of all the residencies I conducted in Oregon since January.

Mid-week point - Artist Residency at RPA

Since the previous blog post, the first week of my artist residency at Redmond Proficiency Academy is at the mid-point and the mural is starting to form as an image with specific elements. Working with a small core group of students, I've taken them through the following steps since beginning on Monday:
Site Visit - After a brief introduction and overview of the mural project, we visited the site where the completed mural is to be installed. There are actually two sites involved; one is a temporary site in the City of Redmond Centennial Park and the other is the permanent location the mural will be moved to at the end of summer.
Brainstorm Ideas - Group discussion to generate ideas for subjects that may be included in the mural. Follow-up research for source images was begun after the brainstorming session.
Formal Meeting with the "Client" - Students met at City Hall with Economic Development Director and representatives from the RCAPP and the Centennial Committee. A pre-meeting group discussion generated questions the students determined they needed to ask at the meeting. The meeting ended with a visit to the mural installation sites led by the Economic Development Director; additional questions and concerns were discussed at each site.
Formulating the Basic Composition - Students discuss and map out what images go where in the mural. This process will continue through the end of the week.
Creating a Budget - Students create a budget, working with unit prices and then calculating total costs. I also introduce line items that are typical requirements in "real world" proposed budgets and discuss the purpose of each and why it is needed.

Final Residency begins Feb. 8th

My last artist residency in Oregon begins in a couple days. This will be the first time I've conducted my program for a proficiency acadamy. I'll be working with about 20 high-school-age students in the City of Redmond. For this residency, I've proposed to conduct one week of "real job" introduction for the students. Students will be required to perform all the tasks and steps that a working artist must successfully complete when applying for an opportunity to create specific public art.