As an official monarch waystation, the San Carlos Community Garden (SCCG) has remained a popular landing spot for winged insects. And after months of hard, collaborative work by Patrick Henry High School’s (PHHS) art club, a new mosaic-tiled butterfly will be making the garden its permanent home this June.
The project began with the help of PHHS art teacher Jason Rogalski.
“The [art club members] wanted to do public art works, so I started reaching out to different places asking if they were interested in having murals made for their spaces,” Rogalski said. “I had already worked with [SCCG Board Member] Leslie Nelson in the past for different projects. So, I asked if they wanted us to paint garden boxes or do a mural and Leslie said, ‘well what about a mosaic?’”
The butterfly, which began as a sketch, features an array of colorful nature-inspired designs.
“I gave [the art club students] the basic technique of how to mosaic and they went miles further,” Rogalski said. “They’ve gotten extremely good at it. You can see a lot of swirls and flowers, I didn’t expect them to do that.”
It was the collective teamwork of PHHS first-year students and art club members Gweneviere Frenzel, Adel Tenizbayeva, Lilian Hawking, Makena Heinzelmann, Hannah Ly, Sonya Vance, Eva Ramon, Ava Soto, and Izzi Weber. They all met during their daily lunch periods to finish the artwork before the end of the school year, explained Soto.
Prior to this project, Ly said that she had never made a mosaic and wanted to learn to do so. “People will be able to see that we worked hard on it and maybe they’ll be inspired by it,” she said.
Similarly, Frenzel hadn’t worked with mosaics either. “It seem[ed] like a really fun way to expand my art because I mostly do drawings and paintings,” Frenzel said. “I thought it was really cool to do something different, and it turned out really great.”
Although they may have been nervous when first learning how to work with the tiles, Heinzelmann found that the more she worked on the art, the more fun she had.
For Ramon, contributing to her community was a crucial part of the artwork. “That’s something that I’ve always been interested in: giving back to the community,” she commented. “Our art is gonna be on display and that’s really cool.”
Tenizbayeva also said that supporting her friends was equally important to the art’s execution.
When reflecting on their time together and favorite moments working collectively, all of the art club members echoed Vance’s excitement for community members to visit the garden to see their work.
“I’m excited to see it once all the flowers have bloomed,” said Hawking. “I’m just hoping that the kids that visit will find it really cool because it’s super colorful.”
Those interested in seeing the artwork can visit the SCCG every Saturday from 9 – 11 a.m.
Top photo credit: Kelly Wood
