Students at Marlton Elementary are getting the chance to leave a lasting impression on their school — literally, as they work to help create a new fruit-themed mosaic mural for the school’s cafeteria.
Over the next few months, each of the school’s more than 400 students will get a chance to cut and paint clay tiles that will eventually be glued to the school’s cafeteria wall in March to form a design created by the students themselves.
Assisting the students with their project is artist Neil Patterson, who helped students at the school six years ago with a similar project that transformed a wall of the school’s gym foyer into an undersea-themed mosaic.
Patterson introduced the project mid-January, at which time he described the concept of mosaics to students as incredible forms of art and told them the project would be a collaborative effort.
“It’s a naturally collaborative process, which is part of why I love it,” Patterson said. “Everyone gets to contribute visible parts.”
Patterson then worked on the design of the new fruit-themed mural with a 16-student design team made up of two students from each of the school’s fourth- and fifth-grade classes.
To help students, Patterson used graph paper to provide students with an image of the wall where the mosaic is planned.
“I have them draw it to scale as how they’d like to envision it, and then what I try to do is incorporate elements from as many of their designs as I can,” Patterson said.
Art teacher Randi Gordon and other school staff selected members of the design team prior to Patterson’s arrival by asking the students to draw realistic depictions of fruit. According to Gordon, nearly half of the design team for the mural were also a part of school’s art club in the fall.
“I’ve watched some of these kids since they were little, and they’ve been so phenomenal since the beginning,” Gordon said.
Patterson will continue to attend art classes at the school throughout the next several months as students continue to create the thousands of necessary tiles needed to make the mosaic a reality.
The making of the tiles will vary from grade level to grade level, from students in kindergarten using cookie cutters to make simple clay circles to students in higher grades using templates to cut more advanced shapes.
If the process remains on schedule, the tiles will be ready for the cafeteria wall in March, at which time Patterson will enlist the help of parent volunteers to put grout between each tile on the wall. Once finished, kids at the school will be able to enjoy the mural for years to come.
“It’s so exciting. When we dedicated the sea mosaic that’s already here six years ago, students were coming up and saying ‘there’s my crab’ and ‘there’s my little shark,’ so they all just kind of find their part,” Patterson said.
Patterson and his wife Sandi Pierantozzi, also an artist, are based in Philadelphia and are owners of the Neighborhood Potters art studio. In addition to his work at MES, Patterson has also done mural work at Jaggard and Beeler elementary schools.
