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

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“When I tape a piece, I freeze that artwork in time,” said Brody. “It’s the kids who do everything. I just take their work and then set it in cement. The kids get to put them together, they can see their own marks on it.”

For Brody, who works with students in classrooms across Portland, the hardest part with working with elementary school children is preparing for each class.

“I cut a lot of the pieces ahead of time,” he said, working his way around the classroom laying out papers and tidying up pieces of left-behind glass in preparation for the next class. “You have to really be set up for them. Preparation is much more extensive with the kids, because we are on such a tight schedule.”

Children get exactly 50 minutes with “Mr. Brody” and then it’s back to class, or lunch, or recess.

The fifth-grade class recently finished a mosaic on the solar system, fourth-grade will finish their “Oregon” mosaic later this week. Then it’s on to third-graders’ “animals” mosaic, and finally second-grade, whose mosaic will focus on school and their community.

“It’s fun to get kids to appreciate just how many tiles are put in to their mosaics,” said Brody.

Each mosaic will feature around 3,000 pieces of glass, most no larger than one square inch.

“These art projects are turning out great,” said Bridgeport Principal Gerry Nihill. “The kids are getting this great opportunity to learn from a really fantastic artist, I can’t wait see these continue to take shape.”

While a special artist-in-residence at Bridgeport is a new idea for the school, Nihill said that he hopes to bring in more artists in the future to work with students

“We have one other mosaic that is in our cafeteria,” he said. “We made that quite a few years ago, and we’d love to add mosaics and murals like these throughout the school. They’re pieces that are inspired by kids, and made by kids.”

The first finished mural could be hung in the library as early as next week.

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