Earlier this year, my co-worker Jayne found the idea to make a collaborative school-wide paper mural based on the artwork of Thank YouX. The idea for a student mural originally came from Jenell Novello and you can see the lesson plan write-up on Artsonia. She also so generously provided the lesson plan and templates on Google docs.
Thank You X got his name by accident. In 2009 Andy Warhol’s spray painted portrait was spotted on a city street in L.A.. It was signed; “Thank You X”. The artist added this signature as a gesture of gratitude to Warhol’s art. More and more “Thank You X” artwork was noticed around L.A. and Thank You X became the artist’s identity. Soon business’s started commissioning him to paint murals and collaborations. He is now an internationally recognized artist with murals and galleries all over the world.
I love showing students videos of artists at work. Here is a fantastic video of him painting the mural (above) on YouTube.
Our mural included one cube made by each student in the school. The mural was made from individual cubes which incorporate the image of geese to represent the spirit of community and collaboration at EAGLE. (Our school is using a geese theme this year.)
Have you ever done a project inspired by Thank You X?
Love these!!! How did you hang all the cubes? Were they individually glued down to a long sheet of paper?
We taped the backs of them together and then hung them in large pieces.