Pieces come together

Our women’s class has got really into painting, and is finally starting to think about how to build compositions using the entire page. This class we set them the task of making mosaics — constructing a single image out of fragments of coloured squares. The goal was to combine what we’ve previously explored making patterns and mandalas and add colour to make images.

We’ve been trying to encourage students not to copy the reference images we give them — but it’s hard to draw completely from imagination or conceptualise a page without access to any images within the prison. So in this class, I gave them a bunch of reference images and said they can borrow and combine elements from different works so long as they add their own ideas, colour schemes, patterns and compositions. This worked! In fact, it was a much more productive class than usual.

We got a lot of great feedback as well — students told us they really enjoyed making these works, they sat silently and didn’t speak for three hours straight, and we saw them sharing skills with one another, like borrowing and sharing colours on their palettes. Some kept working through the week and brought completed works to the class after. It was nice to see the class, like the mosaic paintings, come together!