This year I’m posting three times per month: WORDS on the 3rd, PICTURES on the 13th, and SOUND on the 23rd. This is my second installment of PICTURES.

Ever wonder what 500 pairs of hands can create together? Here’s a peek inside the recent mosaic mural project All Hands Art led in San Luis Obispo, California, over a one-week span.

Let’s Get Started

I’d like to thank:

• Principal Marlie Schmidt, for championing this project with humor and despite any odds

• Marlie’s husband Rob and brother Derek, for your many hours of good-natured hands-on help

• Chelsea Smiley, matchmaker extraordinaire, for envisioning me as the person who could make mosaic murals happen at Los Ranchos School

• Bonnie Johnson, for jumping on board in a tight schedule and leading the creation of all the handmade tiles—they add loads of character to the mural

• Elena Ramos, for helping me think when my brain was mush, and for staying positive through the daily exhaustion—what a team!

• Cindy McCann, for driving three hours each way so that I could put you to work; a Girl Scout through and through

• The school staff members who worked on the mural during short breaks, after school, and on Saturday

• All the parent volunteers who assisted in their children’s classes—not sure how we would have managed without you!?—and during adult work time :)

• The construction crew, for the very solid and professional installation of the artwork; you make us all look good

• Heath Ceramics in Sausalito, CA, for furnishing yet another mosaic mural project with donated boxes of beautifully imperfect tile

• The entire Los Ranchos community, for donating tile, showing up, and welcoming me in when you had only a vague idea what was in store. I hope to return for more creative mischief.

I am honored to collaborate with those who value the transformative impact of art, on both our physical spaces and our souls. For more information about mural facilitation look here.

Until next time,
- Pam

P.S. If you’re someone who would read The Mosaic Mural Handbook: a Guide for Facilitating Community Mosaic Mural Projects (or maybe I’ll just call it “The Accidental Muralist”), let me know. You could motivate me to take the nearly-complete-but-years-old manuscript sitting in folders on my computer, and get it to the finish line. ;)