"Reaching for a Star" - A Mural by Don Gensler

  The mural titled "Reaching for a Star" by Don Gensler, created and presented in Philadelphia, appears to be an extraordinary interesting work to me.

 

(Image source: TIME, http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1649278_1421197,00.html)

Don Gensler is a painter, as well as an illustration artist whom involved in large-scaled public art projects. 

Since 2002, he has been a lecturer in public art and mural painting at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. In 2006, he became the Adjunct Professor of public art at RPI school of Architecture in Troy, New York. 

Don Gensler has completed over 35 public art projects nationally, including his mural art works. 

(Source: http://www.donaldgensler.com/resume.html)

"Reaching for a Star" is a piece of mural which is painted on one of the walls of Don Gensler's house. The work perfectly combined the structure of the house itself, creating external virtual windows as if they were new open doors for 'hopes'. 

The background of the the mural, illustrated in simple colours such as light and dark blues, and light and dark reds, painted in pieces of nets and blocks that overlap, give the feeling of piecing the dreams and hopes that were incomplete together. 

The enlarged human figure standing on the left side of the mural with the shinning star pointing out from the space of the work itself, catches the major attention from the audience. The stars and lightning, which are painted in yellow, contrasting with the colours of the background and the human figure, move the spotlights onto these elements immediately. At the same time, the idea of stars also resembles 'hope', and creates an atmosphere of star night.

As Don Gensler himself said,  "That mural is the best thing that's happened around here. For 20 years, this neighborhood's been going down, but when they came and put that mural up there on the wall, it stopped it from going down" (Source: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1649278_1421197,00.html), the idea of catching he star, which represents 'hope' perhaps has given a direction to the neighbourhood that pushes them forward, gives them motivation to move on.  

Mural project

The first group project we got assigned to is to produce a  piece of mural artwork in groups of  five to six people, which each of the group has to come up with one universal, widely known 'positive' topic. During class time, the group has to plan the display and composition of the mural, and each person from the group would then need to be responsible for one of the parts on the piece. 

As our first homework on this specific project, we were told to make a neat and detailed drawing for the part each one of us is responsible of. The first attached image is the sketch I've done, outlined with Sharpy. Since the topic our group's mural is 'courage', I have came up with the idea of people whom's sexualities are something other then heterosexual, and having the 'courage' to 'come out from the closet', to have the 'courage' to stand out and tell the rest of the world. In the image, it shows a female couple climbing their way to the top of the world with 'courage'.

  On the next day, we were all brought to the computer lab for further edits on our sketches. The image below is the sketch I did, with edits on Photoshop. I've basically used 'magic tool' to select the blank parts I do not want to leave on the page, and then crop them out. In the end, only the object itself  (ladder with the two females) are left on the page.

Visit to Society of Illustrators

  

On second of July, the class visited 'Society of Illustrators', where a lot of impressive illustrations from all genres were exhibited. 

As our homework, we were told to choose one of the works we liked the most. The attached image, "Little Nemo in Slumbraland" by Winsor McCay, an American cartoonist, appears to be the most unique and interesting piece of work out of all.

Like most of the comic pieces, this piece of work is also created in the grid form. It is mainly divided into twelve grids, which the first three is separated from the story portraits inside the nine grids at the bottom, although as a whole it's a continuous story line.

The major reason why this selected episode from "Little Nemo in Slumbraland" is how Winsor McCay has not only gradually built up an interesting story line within the nine grids at the bottom, if you look closely, he has also combined the nine grids and make them as a complete imagery. Even more, after a further background research on the illustrator himself and the summary of "Little Nemo in Slumbraland", it immediately helped me to understand the story in a much deeper level. The research has also made the last panel, which Nemo sits in bed with annoyed facial expression, make much more sense to me.

Despite the unique way Winsor McCay has presented this specific episode to the audience, the colours he chose to present on each character in the story has obviously made specific character(s) stand(s) a superior status. In this piece of work, since Nemo is the main character, therefore he is the only one being fully coloured; apart from him, the other none human figured monster like characters are all being given one simple colour, such as red, green and yellow. The simplicity in his choice of colour has somehow balanced out the complex movement and lines with the grids.

The story being told in this specific episode is a symbolism for changed in attitude towards things that are more sexually related in the society, which is also a sign of change in generation. 

Second homework task

  The next homework task we have to complete is:

First homework project

The first homework task we received is 'create an illustration that includes the first letter of your name'.