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.
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.
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"Playing Guitar", Jerod
For this tile, I painted what I enjoy doing the most, which is playing the guitar. It's really the only thing I do apart from playing video games, and bug my little sister. Playing other instruments was exciting and enjoyable while I was little, but growing up I really excelled at playing the guitar. I enjoy the sounds that you can create and the mistakes you grow over; the progress being made is one of my favourite parts. Going from not having a clue what you are doing to creating a beautiful song that you can just want to share with everyone. I'm not an artist when it comes to painting so doing this painting was wuite a hard task and I needed a little (or a lot) of a push (it was pretty big).
The image that I got was a pretty rough image to work with, but I did my best with creating what looked like a guitar. I chose to only paint the sound hole on the guitar for the reason that that is what creates the art. That little hole makes the sound that really is the most stunning sound in the world, with a little help from my hand as well. The image is not as clear as others, but like I said before I'm gifted in guitar playing, not in painting. But I think this gets the message out well. |
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"Soccer", Esme
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"Basketball", Quinn
My spark is basketball. Basketball makes me feel alive every time I'm dribbling up da court. I have other interests, but nothing compares to the excitement I feel on the court. Playing on the school basketball team is where I live my spark. Committing myself to every practice and game is something I am prepared to do for a sport I am so passionate about. Lack of motivation often gets in the way on the offseason. Committing myself to practicing on my own time is difficult, but once I'm out there practicing, I'm out there for hours. Playing basketball is not only a great source of activity, nut a great source of fun.
My tile shows my hand, holding a basketball, and a basketball hoop. I painted the background green, the basketball hoop brown with a white net, the basketball orange, and my blue hand grasping the ball. This painting I drew shows me playing basketball on an outdoor court. This tile really expresses my love for basketball. |
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"Summer", Madoka
Summer is my favorite season. I feel more active and alive and positive about my life in the summer months. I enjoy swimming and playing on the beach. I love feeling the warmth of the sun.
The simple wave depicts the ocean and how much I fell in love with Hawaii. The dark background signifies the wearing of sunglasses and seeing the bright sun with a dark filter. My tile expresses the importance of feeling positive, active and alive. I keep a bit if summer with me all year round. |
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"Art and Painting", Monica
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"Dance", Lea
For my spark, I chose Dance. I have been dancing since I was five and it has been a big part of my life since then. Dance is a way of allowing me to take my mind off everything and emotionally let everything out through my movements. I love being able to jump through the air and moving along the floor. I also love moving to the music and feeling the vibration through the floor and through my body.
Dance allows me to speak through my movements, no matter how I'm feeling. I can express my emotions and feelings freely and I can walk out of every class feeling more relieved and relaxed than before. Dance makes up a huge part of my fitness, flexibility, and memory. I always feel strong in my body, and I wouldn't have been able to do that without dance in my life. Performing is probably one of my favourite parts about dance. When you're on stage, you get this huge rush of energy and adrenaline through your body and you just want to keep performing again and again. Knowing all eyes are on you is nerve-wracking but exciting at the same time. I am really thankful for my family and friends who have always supported me and pushed me to the limits and told me to never give up. |
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"Animals and Nature", Callum
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"Art is my Spark", Shae-Leigh
Art has been in my life since I was around the age of 5. Art has always been my way to calm down and release stress. Art is the reason I wake up in the morning and sleep at night. As cheesy as that sounds, art is my life, and if for some reason I could not continue doing so, my life would change for the worst. I do draw/ create every day of my life; I try my best to do something that concludes art at least once a day. I like to believe that I'm known for my art, so therefore I believe that everyone that knows me knows that my spark would be art. My friends and family feed my spark, they give me the encouragement and the help that I need to give me that little push to do something amazing. Nothing really gets in my way when I'm in a creative mood, although I think my teachers know when I'm not paying much attention, because I'm scribbling all over my homework.
I wanted my tile to be portraits of many people, only for the once reason to show that my favorite thing to draw is the faces of animals and people. Inner beauty is way better than what is on the outside, I don't agree with the people who make fun of others for the color of the skin or if they had a small imperfection. Personally I believe that the face of a person can tell so much, and that's why I love to draw them so much. Developing this project is not much of a worry to me, the only thing I have against this project is that it's done in paint. I don't really love painting so I was not excited for this part of the project; I normally do art in pencil so paint was a new thing for me. The teachers and students around me are the most supportive people for this project, and I became more excited to do the project. Because of the colour of my tile, and because I love pencils, I ended up making pencils on my tile as they went well with the feathers. Most of all I'm really excited to see how this whole project turns out with everybody's hard work put together. Update: My tile was a pretty dark one to start off with, which ended up contributing to my spark more than others may think. I do most of my art in black and white, so this only helps to show my love for the colours. The main photo in pencils lying on their sides, one says HB 2 which means quite a bit to me. I use pencils that don't cost a fortune; anyone can draw and create a work of art with cheap objects and I'm just an example. I don't need a million dollars' worth of materials to do what I love. There is not much else to my painting here, just expressing my love for art. |
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"Basketball", Yorgos
My spark is basketball. I live my spark as often as possible, at school and at home. Whenever I play basketball, whether it's by myself or during a school game, I really feel exhilarated. My spark Is very public, and everyone who sees me play knows it. Multiple people feed my spark, such as coaches, or my family. Even the people watching me play fuel my spark greatly. Nothing really gets in the way of my spark, and it is easy for my spark to flourish.
On my tile, I put a basketball player dunking the ball. Although I'm currently nowhere near to being able to do that on a regular, 10 foot hoop, it speaks to me and shows me that, I always have room to grow and improve. The tile also symbolizes and shows my spark; basketball. In my life, all 40 of the developmental assets are present and they all greatly assist my development and love for the sport. One asset that helps me the most would be Achievement Motivation. This motivation keeps my striving for excellence in my skills with the sport. Like I mentioned before, all 40 of the assets are around me and help me with my spark. |
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"Film making", Charlotte
My spark is films and filmmaking. I am determined to make it in the film industry and be able to make innovative movies for the public to watch and be inspired by, disgusted by, and fascinated by. I'm unwavering in my dedication to watching most if not all of the great films that already exist and I hope to start making crude short films soon. I want to be able to represent minorities in my movies and touch on subjects that have not had much light shed on. I have already begun screenwriting and hope to improve over time. I am passionate about cinematography and symbolism and everything about films.
I am quite vague on how I would incorporate this into my tile as it already has a set design and I can only alter to a certain extent (to maintain the mural itself) but I suppose I will have a colour scheme and some sort of reference to films. Maybe just some representation of someone watching a movie. |
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"Yoga", Jean "Mrs. K"
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"Two Faces", Charlotte One of my sparks is portrait drawing. I like to capture the nuances of someone’s face and translate it through pencil or ink. I think it’s satisfying to see their features emerge on paper. This was a simple spark to portray in my tile, so I just painted the eagle’s feet as two faces. I picked a composition where the faces are the centre of attention and the features reach towards the faces. Portraiture is one of my favourite art forms: I always feel incredibly calm and serene drawing portraits so that was the expression I projected upon the faces.
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"Longboard", Joao
For this tile, I decided to focus on one of my favourite sparks, which is longboard. Ride my longboard makes me happy and calm, it makes me forget about everything around, when I ride, I just pay attention on what is in front of me. I like to feel the wind on my face, the adrenalin, the excitement on going downhill and the feeling when I am doing any trick.
I picked a composition with a lot of different colors and different objects representing my spark, as wheels, gloves and a longboard. It shows, where it was supposed to be wing of the eagles, wheels on different sizes and on brown color with some values on yellow, and over it I made longboard's glove. The last thing is the draw of someone riding a longboard going downhill attempting to represent my excitement when I practice it. |
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"Art, Nature and Textures", Hannah
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"Youth and Time", Cassidy
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"Sunset", Madoka
I chose the image of a sunset because when I see a sunset I feel peaceful and relaxed.
My tile shows earth, water, air, and fire. Earth symbolizes nature. Water in this picture symbolizes growth. The air in symbolizes life as well. The sun symbolizes fire which helps activate all life. Altogether these elements create balance and harmony. The use of secondary colours shows a peaceful mood. The qualities of the lines in the sunset are soft and feathery which create a peaceful feeling. The organic form of the mountain represents nature. When all four elements are placed together they have an organic balance. I chose this image as my spark because I need to feel calm and peaceful so that I can be happy. |
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"Sakura", Rubii
I chose the topic of Japan as my spark because my country is so important to me. The title is Sakura which is a very famous flowering cherry tree in Japan which is one of the important images in my tile. Mt. Fuji is the most famous mountain in Japan so I have painted it on the bottom of my tile. The final element is a cloud that creates movement through the painting.
The contrast in colours show a mood that is nostalgic. The wavy feathery lines also express a nostalgic mood. The shape of the cloud creates movement and symbolizes the many years I lived in Japan. The asymmetrical balance of the cherry tree and the mountain give a sense of interest and activity. |
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"Music", Savannah
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"Cooking and Baking", Brittany
For my spark I chose to do cooking and baking. I love to cook and bake for others and I love to see others enjoying the foods I make. I often make dinner at home and it's always different because I love to experiment with different recipes that I come across. When I find a recipe that works I feel super proud of what I've made and I save the recipe so I can use it again. I took some of the recipes that I've found over the years and I made my own cookbook, which I was really proud of. I bake as much as I can whenever there Is a birthday in my family I volunteer to make the cake, I have made toms of cakes and I love to decorate them. I've taken decorating classes and I plan to take more so I can learn to work with fondant and make the cake more detailed. My entire family is supportive of my spark. They obviously don't mind trying the things I make because they love food! My family helps feed my spark by buying me things to bake or cook with and also whenever they see a recipe they want me to try the give the recipe and I make it for the next time I see them. Something that gets in the way of my spark is when recipes don't work out. It feels disappointing when you put a lot of time and effort into something and it fails. Another thing that gets in the way of my spark is life, sometimes I just don't have time to make stuff, which sucks because obviously if I have chores or homework I'd much rather be baking but I know those things come first before fun. In the end I always try to find time to make something for my family to enjoy.
For my tile I plan to do a collage of the different things that remind me of my spark I will put people cooking and cooking utensils and a large chef hat! I want to showcase my spark in a way that people will know what my spark is just by looking at the tile! |
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"Spelunking", Megan
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"Performing", David
My spark is performing or presenting to an audience in many different ways possible whether it'd in the form of music, acting, in the classroom or even comedy!
I live my spark in my drama classes at school, extra-curricular acting courses, when I perform music with people and sometimes in the classroom where I might need to speak to the class about something. Essentially, anywhere that the opportunity presents itself. My spark is yet to be widely known, as I don't perform as often I'd like, but those who see me definitely know that I love to do it; acting is probably my favorite, but I give my all no matter what I may be performing! Those who help feed my spark include my acting class teacher, Jackie, our school drama teacher, Mr. Spencer, Ed, my all around music buddy and guitar/bass mentor, my parents and many other people that might encourage me to do what I love! Although they all support me in different ways, I must give special mention to Mr. Spencer since he has made me realize that I love to perform through his drama class where he gives very good advice and critique that help me improve my performing skills. Lastly I must talk about what gets in the way of my spark, and honestly, there isn't much! I could say homework and school or something like that, but they all help me in some way with my spark! Being in school is what made me realize that I love to perform and present, so no complaints there. Homework keeps me generally focused, level-headed and allows me to not wander off onto things I shouldn't, even though it does get exceedingly tedious at times. So I may not like to admit it, but even homework helps with my spark. |
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"Performing", Darrien
My spark is performing. I perform everywhere, ever since I was little I've always loved the spotlight and being able to entertain people, and it is still that way today. Everybody in my family knows my spark, because when I'm at home, it is not that hard to miss. My acting teacher also knows my spark and so do some of my friends. As I said before, my entire family knows my spark, and they also all help feed my spark, sometimes we have random dance parties in our kitchen, in our truck and play instruments together. I would say that nothing gets in the way of my spark, but for my career I want to be an actor. So, the real thing that gets in the way is money just because it costs a lot to go to Vancouver for auditions lots.
On my tile it is the theatre sign (the nappy and sad masks). This picture says that I love to perform and that I am going to stop at nothing to make my dream come true. The developmental asset that matters most to me is family support. The reason this matters so much to me is because without my family I would not get the support I need to try new things every day and follow my dream. Finally, the assets that are around me that help me succeed are family support, positive family communications, other adult relationships, adult role models, all of the positive values and finally, positive view of personal future. The reason that all of these help me succeed is because they all challenge me and make me a better person. |
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"Music", Megan
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"The View", Deborah
For this tile, I painted one of my sparks which is rock climbing. I chose rock climbing because when I rock climb I feel alive. I forget everything I'm worried about and just climb. Once I get to the top, I like to look at the view and I'm never disappointed. I especially like the view because everything looks so small and its fun looking at things from a different perspective. I picked a tile that had mostly green and brown so I could paint a lot of trees at the bottom of the cliff and for the cloud background in the original photo, I made a lot of lakes and ponds to match the colour. I think the most important principle in my tile would be colour because I had to match it with the colour of the original tile. I especially enjoyed painting the two trees at the top of the cliff and trying to match it with the colour of the branches in the original tile.
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