This year in our Year 8 Visual Arts Specialist class, students were commissioned to use the school mission statement; Rigorous Minds, Compassionate Hearts” and create a mural design. Each student carefully researched and came to an understanding of these words, and responded in their own style by designing awesome ‘mini murals’. During this process, students met with Luke O’Donohoe, a local Perth Artist to collaborate and design a large mural for the Secondary area. We wanted this artwork to mirror our school colours and clearly communicate the words; Rigorous Minds, Compassionate Hearts. In keeping with the Artists’ typography style, students then drafted up some fonts for Luke. Proudly displayed in our Secondary area, now stands a beautiful, bold and dynamic Mural. Hand-painted by Luke O’Donohoe and our very own Year 8 students. You cannot come or go to our secondary area without reflecting and possibly asking yourself, have I in me, a rigorous mind and compassionate heart?” 

Here are some exerts from the student self evaluation write ups:

Genevieve M: “This task was about designing a mural for our school. The mural needed to be based on our school missional statement: Rigorous Minds, Compassionate Hearts. We chose to use typography as this is a very clear and expressive subject, suited to everyone. We used investigative skills, painting and drawing skills. The first thing we did was research what the school statement was and what it meant. We then also looked at symbolism. Then we researched Luke, O’Donohoe as we were going to be working with him. We researched murals, then came up with a collaborative design. Then lastly, we painted the mural with Luke O’Donohoe. Something that went well during the mural was the painting as we all worked together, and it turned out amazing.”

Isabel H: “A part of this task that I enjoyed was being able to take part in painting it and helping to put our ideas into reality. I think our art communicated the school’s ideas and our beliefs (Rigorous minds compassionate hearts). One part about this task I found challenging was researching different art styles and artists. Our art style was inspired by Luke’s work as he has done a lot of work with typography and blockwork. A specific style we used in our mural was different fonts and colours, we also used blocks behind the words in the mural.”

Natasha B: “We all worked together throughout the whole process which meant it was never boring. Our mural was heavily influenced by Luke’s prior murals and paintings as we had taken time to look at some of his pieces and paintings. A theme that I can see is our school colours and shield, as they are clearly visible.”

William K: “The most enjoyable thing from painting this mural was the painting. Our mural communicated that our school helps people and shows compassion in what we do. The thing I found most challenging was painting nice and slow because it felt like you could just go crazy and paint whatever, but you couldn’t. I worked with lots of people because we had a little schedule, and we would paint with a partner which was fun.”

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