West Seattle schools: New Arbor Heights mural tells salmon story

| Arbor Heights | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

(Photos by Ellen Cedergreen for WSB)
One more last-day-of-elementary-school West Seattle story: Arbor Heights Elementary celebrated a new artwork this morning, just before its end-of-year assembly – a mural for its playcourt. AH teacher Mark Ahlness tells WSB, “It is the culmination of months of work by all students, under the direction of artist-in-residence Jihyun Andersen.” He has a Flickr gallery up. The artist was there when WSB contributor Ellen Cedergreen stopped by:

Jihyun is also an Arbor Heights mom, with a son finishing his kindergarten year. She thought the playcourt looked rather stark, so the mural idea was born, and has been under way since May. It depicts the Fauntleroy Creek ecosystem when salmon are released – a Salmon in the Classroom activity in which AH participates.

Ellen reports that the 5th graders did a lot of the free-hand drawing and the kindergarteners used bug stamps to populate the creek. The 1st-4th graders worked on the plants and birds.

Jihyun told Ellen she plans to add a few trees, then seal the mural with varnish to protect it.

a parent June 21, 2011 (11:11 pm)

Beautiful work!

Peggy June 22, 2011 (5:33 am)

How wonderful! It is just beautiful and I love how the students were so involved.

Growing up I attended E.C. Hughes Elementary and Frank B. Cooper Elementary (the original), and would have loved to have had a mural on our playground area walls.

We have lived near Houston for the past 11 yrs. The elementary school my children attended received a grant to implement the Susan Kovalik Integrated Thematic Instruction module (I think she lives in Covington, Wa). Part of the grant went to de-institutionalizing the look of the school, specifically the ‘pod’ areas of each grade level.

Each grade level pod received an artistic makeover such as the above. The 3rd grade pod’s theme was the ecosystem like the mural above. Even the file cabinets that sat outside the classrooms were painted to match the theme. We also had a mom that was a graphic artist who helped on the project.

It is wonderful to incorporate art in the school like this.

Bonnie June 22, 2011 (7:17 am)

Wonderful! Good job Jihyun!

AHMOM June 22, 2011 (7:56 am)

This looks wonderful!!! I know all the kids in my son’s class were excited about it. Thank you for putting in the time to get this done. It now looks like someplace fun to play as opposed to a prison yard. LOL

Suzanne June 22, 2011 (9:11 am)

This is wonderful! I always hated the look of that play court when my kids were there. What a transformation. Great job everyone!

Alki Resident June 22, 2011 (11:22 am)

My daughter came on Saturday to help paint the mural.I was really impressed by what I saw when I viewed it for the first time.It sure means more when the students get to help create and paint it.Thanks Jihyun.

dameDonna June 22, 2011 (12:31 pm)

Love it!

Mark Ahlness June 22, 2011 (6:19 pm)

It should also be noted that Jihyun worked with each classroom prior to their participation in the playcourt, starting in March. With my third graders, she talked about our ecosystem and its animals and plants. Then they did charcoal studies and learned basic art concepts of line, shading, tint, etc. Then they delved into painting, creating color wheels with primary colors, in preparation for painting in the playcourt. My class was one of the early groups out there, and you can’t really see a lot of their work, because they actually drew the plants and animals in with pencil. Those drawings were then outline-painted in a neutral color by other students. Then came yet more students who added the color to the elements. Each classroom had a different experience with Jihyun, with the younger kids making stamps used to create bugs and salmon.

It was an exciting process, not just because of the beautiful product, but because the kids really got to see quite literally the layers of work and collaboration necessary to create a large scale piece of art together. Thank you Jihyun, and many thanks to our PTSA, who sponsored the project.

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