Students and staff at Southwest Open School recently hung and dedicated a mosaic mural that was an art project all year.

The process began in the first intensive, (3 week class where students attend only one class each day) when mosaic students surveyed all classes as to what SWOS meant to them. These ideas resulted in the overall design and meaning of each of the four quadrants of the mural.

The north (top) quadrant represents the future and graduation, the southern (bottom) quadrant shows words and symbols that mean things about SWOS, the east section incorporates tiles showing travel and trips students go on that relate to their classes, and the west section shows hobbies and interests of SWOS students and staff. All of these ties unique to each section were handmade by the students. Small clay masks are placed in each quadrant that are self portraits of the artists while others are expressions of their creativity.

In the first trimester class students cut out the background shape, which represents independence, and made handmade clay tiles and masks to use in each section. Color and selection decisions and gathering of commercial tiles started the border and background designs behind the handmade pieces. The commercial tile colors fade through various color ranges and correspond to the opposite section.

The mosaic continued throughout the other terms in an independent study art class. After several attempts at a large clay center tile failed, student artists created the center tile out of mosaic. It reads "SWOS".