Woodlands Secondary Tiles and Reflections

After finishing their tile, the students were asked to write a reflection about their tile and their spark.
These reflections are heartfelt and unique to each student, and really add to the value of the mural.

Click on one of the squares below to see a close-up of the tile and the individual reflection.

“Cartoons and Imagination”, Nathan 

I really like cartoons and fiction stories. I believe they are one of my sparks because they inspire me to be creative in other areas. They also help me when I need to relax and have a good time. I sometimes draw while watching cartoons and take ideas from the cartoons. My favourite characters are the ones from Spongebob Squarepants. My family supports me when I watch cartoons because it keeps me quiet and focused. One day I would like to be a professional cartoonist. I am a good artist and can work very fast, too. That would be a great job to have. 

“Ireland National Football Team”, Riley

My spark is soccer, or as they say in some places, football. I have been playing it for as long as I can remember. Soccer makes me feel  happy and active and alive, and I love the feeling I get when I score a goal! I look forward to playing every day. I always want to play soccer, and my ultimate goal is to get into the Ireland National team, which is why I picked it for my painting. I hope to play soccer forever. 

“Wolf and Bear”, Kate
"Volleyball" - Kyle

I decided to focus on my spark, which is Volleyball. I live my spark at school and at home with friends and family. I try to play volleyball every day. When I play volleyball I feel like nothing matters. My parents and my friends know what my spark is and help me succeed at it. People who help feed my spark are my friends, family, volleyball coaches and teachers at my school. Things that get in the way are the other sports I play and time. I could use my knowledge of the sport to help and teach other how to play and the rules of the game. I plan to share my spark by coaching some of the younger kids. In my tile I show how much I like the game.

 “Volleyball” – Maia

 “Archery” – Leannah 
"Myself" - Nolan

My spark is myself. I have to live my life to the best of my ability. I live my spark all day every day. I know my spark, nobody else knows it. Challenges help me feed my spark. Challenges help me so I can push myself to be the best of my ability. Things that get in the way of my spark are other people trying to steer me away from my goals. Like for example, people attempting to get me into drugs but it isn't going to happen. My tile has a picture of myself because my whole spark is about myself. My tile is me, just standing there, minding my own business. I'm going to be wearing light blue because my tile placement is just a picture of the background of the sky and that's light blue.


“Happiness” – Josh

"Artistic Vein" – Luiza

For this tile, my fist one, I decided to combine all my sparks that are all connected somehow with arts. The first object, it's an earphone, which shows how I'm into music. It is something that relaxes me or can make me extremely happy. The other figures used the brush and the palette, represent the painting and drawing, that have been my biggest hobby the last years and make my mind flies. The last element it was a camera. The photography for me it something which it has always been present in my life and one of the few things that I can really say I'm good at. That is fantastic and I love it.

In the rest of the tile, I did a more realistic style because would be really hard in the eagle's face. Where the clouds were supposed to be I did some white flowers, showing how nature inspires me in all the artistic sparks.

“Brazilian Music” - Felipe

The first painting is about a Brazilian music and a Brazilian composer that I like, "Girl from 1panema" is the name of the song, and Tom Jobim is the name of the composer. I like some of the older Brazilian music because most of the Brazilian music today is not good. Music makes me feel good and connected.

“Camping and the Outdoors” – Tyler C. 

“My Spark is Hockey” – Hannah

Hockey is important to me because I have been playing for a long time. I breath, eat and sleep hockey. Hockey is my favourite thing to do.  The stick represents my hockey stick, and the puck represents the puck I scored my first goal with. 

“Medicine” – Emma

“Art” – Monica

“A New View” – Maneesha

For this tile, I chose to focus on something that motivates me to go through life with a smile on my face, photography. I like to capture memories of people the most, I find it very beautiful to catch the moments of people in vulnerable and emotional times Taking pictures leaves me with satisfaction and content. It's very important to me to make people happy and with pictures it will always stay a beautiful memory.

On the tile, I drew mendhi/henna designs, which represent me and my culture. Also, I drew a colourful camera, and polaroids The polaroids represent the two things I like to take pictures of most, people and flowers The sky has a lot of dimensions and colours that 1 mixed together, instead of a plain background because I believe photography is complex and I love mine to be colourful and vibrant.

“Travelling” – Page

My spark for this tile is travelling. All my life I have wanted to travel and see the world. My top places I want to go are India and Africa, so it seemed fitting to paint an elephant. This tile means a lot to me because the next year coming up is going to be my year to travel and do all the things I've dreamed of doing. I really like this tile because of how the elephant looks!

“Sky High Melody” – Jessi

My tiles are 17 and 41, one on top of the other. For these tiles I wanted to show off my spark which is music, and singing. I focused on the microphone because I love to sing; I always find myself singing or mumbling along to a song I barely know. I don't know why singing I so important to me, but it’s just always something I go to when I'm sad. It helps me cope I and find my voice. The reason I also picked music as my spark is because the lyrics that the artists make can be so powerful, and sometimes they are just so powerful that they make me feel a whole lot better when I'm extremely sad. I also used giant speaker to show that I love going to concerts, because it feels me with energy, you get to see people who have the same interests as you, and it also allows for loud music.

“Music” – Sarah

“Freeride Longboarding” – Gage

For this tile, I decided to focus on one of one of my favorite sparks, which is longboarding. Longboarding makes me feel alive. When I longboard, I don't think about every little step, and just follow the road instead. Time stands still, and nothing else matters; I feel energized.

I love interacting with new roads, downhill, sliding, usually with friends because it makes the ride more Competitive and fun. I only slide when it’s sunny out, because when it's raining it isn't good for your wheels and I don't find it a challenge because it’s more slippery.

“Camping and Fishing” – James M.

“Brazil” – Rafaela

This painting is about Brazil, the eye has an important significance. It is our flag, it shows how we are patriots and football lovers. I miss home and I like being from Brazil. 

“Special FX” – Taia

I want to be a special effects artist when I am older and work on movies. This is my passion: to do make-ups and gory scars and make them look realistic. I am always researching ways to make my work better. On my tile, I painted a face that is half human half zombie within the trunk of the tree.

“Portraits and Art” – Christine

“Medical School” – Mady

I'm not very athletic, artistic or have anything that I love to do to the point where I wake up every day thinking about it, so choosing my spark wasn't exactly easy. Instead of something that I enjoy doing I chose something that I'm working towards. For my spark I chose medical school. It's more of a goal then anything but it pushes me to try harder to succeed in school and try my best at everything I do. I’m not sure what field I want to go into, but the reason I want to go into medical school is because I feel like it would be a cool experience. I’m interested in math biology and the human anatomy and I feel like any career going in those directions would be taught in there. Another thing that interests me about the concept of going to medical school is that a whole year of the program is spent as an intern learning from and helping other doctors in all different fields of medicine. So it's not all sitting at a desk writing notes learning, it's also hands on up close learning. I’m not sure if this is the path I will take or even want to take by grade 12 but inn only in grade 9, I don't need a plan yet. Medical school just gives me something to work towards, a goal to try and reach.
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