Monday, December 20, 2010

Miraleste Intermediate School Mosaic

Today's mosaic is at another Palos Verdes school: Miraleste Intermediate in Rancho Palos Verdes. And it's probably the last PV school mosaic that I'll do, because I've been to most of the schools in the district and I think I've found them all (famous last words. Please correct me.)

The mosaic's design was laid out on Photoshop a year ago by art teacher Geoff Guerrero. He & his students worked on it for one trimester, and a few 8th graders completed the work before the end of the school. Guerrero calls the 8th graders his crew: he would give them instructions every morning about breaking tile, setting tile, and all the other tasks they had to do, then send them off.

The benches in the picture give some perspective; this is a big mosaic.

And although its not a mosaic, I'm posting a picture of another art project that Guerrero designed. They were initially plain old gray columns that Guerrero walked by each day, thinking, "Gosh, these would be great if they were painted." So he put together a proposal, got funding, and voila.

Miraleste Intermediate was once Miraleste High School, so it's got a "very expansive, beautiful campus," as Guerrero describes it. "The columns are really one of my favorites...they're like big, minimalist sculpture pieces."

Guerrero was named an Educator of the Year last month for his own positive energy and contributions.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The columns transform the often bleak 1960s architecture into art for today. Brilliant!