My name is Brevyn Fleming. I’m going on my 3rd year at the Art Academy studying Illustration, and I’m finding that I can work in many different media and styles to fit a project. This large-scale painting in children’s-book-style art is a testament to the flexibility I’ve learned in the last two years.
The Art Academy was asked to design and paint a mural when Miller-Valentine’s Adopt-A-Class group decided that they would refurbish Norwood View Elementary’s playground, courtyard, and the tunnel that connected them.
They contacted us early in 2016, and a small group of the student ambassadors began talking over designs in February after we saw the area we’d be painting and met some of the kids from the school. I was chosen as the lead artist because of my experience with illustrative styles and my ability to use photoshop for the design.
The mural that was originally in the courtyard was over 20 years old and hardly used any color—it didn’t make the courtyard a very exciting or cozy place to be. I decided to run with an animal and nature theme to counter the urban environment around the school, and many of the kids said they liked animals and sports. We painted the entire mural in the last 3 weeks of April and the beginning of May, finishing it just before their Playground Dedication on May 5th.
Miller-Valentine provided the paint, brushes, and scaffolding, and Matt Dayler and Justin Toland projected the images on the wall for us. Cecilia Padilla, Madison Leigh, Brittany Harrington, Rachel Liston, Vera Thornbury, Aaron Broughton, Julia Waldorf, Andrea Bacca, Nick Paddock, Tanner Browne, and Galen Crawford all helped paint whenever they could.
