You're Invited to Dedicate the Mural at St. Joseph's

A portion of the mural, ©2012 Jennie Traill Schaeffer

 
On August 18th I put the finishing touches of varnish and officially signed the St. Joseph's mural. After a year and a half of work, my biggest project has been completed. Now, I'm excited to announce an official Mural Dedication which is set to take place on October 14th from 1 - 3pm at St. Joseph's Regional School in Newton. 

The school is located at 20 Jefferson Street, but the mural is accessed by alleys on Halsted and Jefferson Street to the rear of the school. St. Joseph's is putting together a HarvestFest to celebrate the mural. They will be hosting a family-friendly event with a bounce house, pumpkin decorating, face painting, music, and carnival games. 

I hope you'll join me in this very special day! Learn more about the event and the mural process in this Sunday's New Jersey Herald - St. Joseph School to dedicate mural at HarvestFest.

The Nuts and Bolts of the St. Joseph's Mural Commission

Detail of the Crucifixion Window in-progress at St. Joseph's Regional School

Murals have been on my mind. I was commissioned last April by St. Joseph's Regional School in Newton, NJ to complete a mural to complete a play-scape transformation project. My surface - a 40' x 15' cinder block wall pierced with windows. When I first viewed the walls, I thought wow, that is huge. I've never worked that large, let alone outside. Fear of the unknown crept in slowly and I fought back with a determination to successfully execute this project.

Philly Art, courtesy of muralarts.org

I spent a summer in college interning at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and was exposed to their very successful Mural Arts Program. Every corner you turn in Philly, a wall is elaborately finished with amazing images painted by artists. This was my opportunity to understand and work on a grand scale.

Part of my original design for the mural

I took the commission which has taken about a year to design. No, I have not worked on it every day for a year, but in juggling my other projects and teaching, it took a year to come up with an initial idea, and then go through the revision process. Last June I spent two sessions working with selected students in brainstorming ideas. I took some of their ideas. along with my own to present an initial design that incorporated both scripture and elements of the school day. The schema I came up with breaks the wall into a series of stained glass windows, turning the outside into a church-like environment, giving the feeling you are outside and inside a Gothic cathedral at the same time. Ultimately, the committee felt I needed to go purely in the religious direction, so I came up with an illustration depicting 9 bible verses selected by the priest of St. Jo's, Father Brian Sullivan. The windows start with Creation and end with the Resurrection / Ascension.

On the scaffolding for the first time!

Color studies for the mural, done in marker

At the end of March, my current design was approved and then I waited for the warm weather to return. I picked up two sets of 5' scaffolding with my parent liaison, Jessie Martin, and her 70 year old mother who lent us her pickup truck and instructed me on putting it together and scaling it! Truly humbling to watch Jessie's mother climb all over the scaffolding as if she had been born on it.

Montana Hardcore Paint Markers, image from DickBlick.com

Nativity and St. Joseph windows after completing the drawing at night.

I'm using a process that I researched thoroughly over the past year; projecting my image with an Art Prism and drawing the outlines with Montana Hardcore markers. This work required darkness for the image to successfully show on the wall so I spent about six, warm and dry weather evenings in April and May from 8:15 through 10 and 11pm drawing the design with a parent buddy, students, and my son and husband keeping me company. Numerous evenings Joel, my son, would cry because he had to go to bed and couldn't come to the mural. It was really special to have him see me work on this project and be so interested.

After my first painting session.

As of May 10th I finally began the painting. I'm using custom mixed acrylics special ordered from Golden Acrylics in New York state. They make amazing paints - this is my first time using them and I'm super impressed by the coverage, color, and texture of the paints. After I got into the project, I remembered learning about their use for mural work from my time at Pearl Paint. In about a week from ordering at Jerry's Artists' Outlet in West Orange, I had 5 gallons of artists acrylic. I'm using colors suggested by Marshall Okin at Jerry's - manganese blue, pyrole red, hansa yellow medium, bone black, and titanium white - all rated for permanence.The colors are really impressive on the wall.

Detail of Jesus from the Ascension / Resurrection Window

Ascension/Resurrection of Jesus Window, nearly complete as of 5/18

Crucifixion Window, started 5/19

I'm only working on the 2nd of the 9 windows and am hoping to complete any scaffolding work by the beginning of June. However, now that I see how long I am spending on each window, I probably have a good 70 hours worth of work ahead of me; which I'm fitting in around my retail hours at the gallery, my teaching schedule, and picking up my son from daycare. Whew! So if you'd like to follow my progress, become of fan of my Facebook page - that's where I'm posting daily updates. You're also more than welcome to stop by and watch me work.

A really BIG announcement about a really BIG public art commission!

Over the past few months I've been talking behind the scenes with a local private school about the possibility of creating an outdoor mural for their playground space. Jessie Martin, member of the SJRS Enrichment Committee, contacted me back in the beginning of April to inquire if I might be interested in coordinating a collaborative mural to fill the exterior walls of St. Joseph's Regional School in Newton, just up the street from my studio. To say the walls of the school are drab is an understatement. This mural project is part of a playground redevelopment initiative that will occur in phases, mural being Phase 1. Eventually they anticipate ripping up the macadam and replacing it with a brightly colored synthetic rubbery material, with hopscotch game grids, as well as potted plants.

View of the right side of the SJRS courtyard, playground area

View of the short wall on the left side of the larger wall of the SJRS courtyard

Of course, my answer first and foremost was yes. I'm generally one to see an opportunity and snag it; when it comes to my art and career that is. Plus, I've had a secret interest in painting a mural ever since I interned at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1999 and learned about the city's amazing Mural Arts Program. In 2004, I had the honor of designing and painting sets for a New York City modern dance company, ACFD, no longer in operation, which was a great stepping stone to working on a mural. So while I haven't worked at a scale of 40' x 15' (the rough dimensions of the walls at SJRS), I do feel equipped with my background of large scale painting, as well as my experience working with children. The only aspect I'm not been prepared for is climbing up on scaffolding, which I imagine, due to insurance, will be restricted to me, little Jennie. It's a little nerve wracking knowing that I have to ascend to reach heights of 15', when you're only 5' that's pretty high. But, I'm looking forward to experiencing a project which takes me higher and bigger than I'm used to working; I'm reminded of a recent PBS movie on Georgia O'Keeffe which depicted her painting a mural on scaffolding in NYC. I was amazed at that feat and know this commission will stretch me in more ways than just my muscles!

It's taken several months of planning, emailing, putting together a contract, meeting with selected students who spent two sessions brainstorming ideas and sketching with me, and as of today, it is final! I will be working with student and parent volunteers over the course of the summer, in the mornings, when weather permits, to paint a mural that will incorporate, as per Father Brian Sullivan's request, Noah's Ark, The Ascension and The Resurrection, and tie in the students' experiences at school, including, but not limited to, technology, the school mascot, its mission, and more.

Schemata for the SJRS mural, ©2011 Jennie Traill Schaeffer

My intent over the next few days is to design a final sketch of the overall mural that includes some of the students' actual sketches, as well as my own ideas. This will be presented to the school and upon approval, I can begin projecting and outlining the image on the exterior walls. The structure of the mural has been set using the visual armature of stained glass windows to break up the huge walls. This was suggested by Jessie as a way to simplify the space and incorporate references to their stained glass windows in the school. And then when I went to see the courtyard, I noticed the view of neighboring, St. Joseph's Church's bell tower peaking over the short wall. After researching a little bit about Italian architecture from the Middle Ages, I believe, though am not certain, that the design of the church stems from the Lombard Romanesque style and I wanted to tie that into the feel of the school's mural. The design will encompass the schemata of windows, and may in the future, break out of the windows in some areas.

A portion of one of the stained glass windows in the school's art room.

We're working on the possibility of recording the progress of the mural creation, maybe in video. So hopefully along the way, you'll be able to check in and see its development.

I'm looking forward to embarking on this creative endeavor and would like to extend a special thank you to Jessie Martin for thinking of me, reaching out, and pursuing this project with much passion. I'm honored to help St. Joseph's Regional School with such a large-scale and transformative project.

If you're in the Newton area and wish to contribute in any way to this project, we are looking for donations or discounted paint, brushes, lidded plastic containers for paint storage, rags, tarps, and scaffolding. You can contact me at TraillWorks via email or phone, 973-383-1307.email