By Tanya Steele
After a team effort a bright and cheerful mural has been created for the community by local students and has now been proudly displayed in Tecoma.
Adding a bright spot to the outside of Tecoma Primary School the almost completely installed new artwork is now available for the public to enjoy along Burwood Highway in Tecoma.
Tecoma Primary School Art Teacher Jane McManamon said the artwork came about after the Yarra Ranges Council contacted them to commission the project after a new retaining wall was built along the school’s border.
Students in grades one, two, five and six got to work creating collages and artwork after a few brainstorming sessions that had the students put forth local flora and fauna and the mountains around Tecoma as a recurring theme of what they wanted to create.
“So the grade ones and twos – they did a paper cut collage of flora around the school,” said Ms McManamon.
“They grabbed different bits of trees and things that they could use and then represent in their collage,” she said.
“The grade five and sixes made fabric collage birds.”
The project expanded when graphic designer and vice president of the school council Travis Cochrane stepped in to help design the finished artwork, which incorporated the student’s work into a bigger design.
“The hard part was then selecting which ones to use, as I was definitely spoiled for choice, with so many great images to work with,” said Mr Cochrane.
“It was a great pleasure to be involved in a project that not only showcased the wonderful work of the students but also something that hopefully helps to have a positive impact on the school and the community,” he said.
“Creativity is one of the Tecoma Primary School’s values, and I’d like to think the mural encourages and highlights the important role art and creative expression can play in our lives.”
Mr Cochrane said as part of the process he vectorised the art pieces, bringing them into Adobe illustrator to create the layouts to go on each panel.
“The end result being a montage of up to eight or so individual original collages by the students on each panel,” he said.
“A terrific team effort from all involved.”
Yarra Ranges Council assisted with both funding and coordination for the project and local business owner Brad from YV Signs helped with the final output and installation.
The students have been excited to see the transformation that their work has gone through after creating their original pieces earlier this year.
“One of the students has said to me, ‘I saw my bird and it’s huge’ – so there is great excitement at seeing their artwork,” said Ms McManamon.
“The background is made up of all the different grade one and two collages, so there’s quite a lot of those and the kids have had a lot of fun just trying to pick out where,” she said.
Assisting the kids with such a large-scale project is a first for Ms McManamon and she said it’s really nice to see their work on display for the community to enjoy.
“It’s 80 centimeters off the ground and we get lots of traffic from the school kids and the kinder,” she said.
“They (the kids) can be appreciated on a large scale by the community.”
Anyone strolling or driving past Tecoma along the highway can now enjoy the new addition.
