craigdailypress.com

Photo by Nicole Inglis

Craig Middle School art teacher Jill Stacy and her students, Diamond Craig and Clayton Moon, arrange the tiles on their bulldog mural. Stacy’s extended studies class worked for weeks on the mural, which will be their lasting legacy at the new CMS.

At the bottom of the blue and white bulldog mural, there were 11 tiles glazed in blue, and 11 names carved in white.

But each one was different, just like the 11 students in Jill Stacy’s extended studies art class at Craig Middle School.

Some of the tiles were swept with vertical brush strokes, while others were spiraled or embellished with decorations around the names.

“We wanted it to look man-made,” student Felicia Vasquez said. “That’s why it’s a mural. We all paint different. Not on purpose, we just did it that way.”

Among the class of seventh- and eighth-graders, some were natural artists and others took the optional half-hour class for the opportunity to try something new.

Either way, when all of the glazed tiles were assembled together, they made a work of art unique to their class: a growling bulldog with a border of Moffat County blue and white.

Clayton Moon said he had never painted a mural in his life, but the class had become one of his favorites.

“I think it was pretty cool,” he said. “Everybody pitched in and helped. We didn’t want it to look like it was made in a factory.”

The extended studies class, called “mural painting,” was a four-week class that took place the last 30 minutes of the school day.

Stacy’s group all chose to make a contribution to their new CMS building.

Stacy hopes that the mural will be hung in the school’s entrance by the auditorium in the next few weeks as a gift from her class to the new facility.

“People will get to see it for a long time,” Cassidy Griffin said. “(Stacy) said it will be 60 years until they tear this building down. I’ll always walk by it and say, ‘That’s my tile. It’s got hearts, see?’”

The students were excited by the idea of the mural representing the pride they had in their new building and their desire to put their own unique touch on a part of it.

But they also spoke highly of being able to choose an extended studies class that would let them spend 30 minutes of each day on a project of their choice.

“We all get to do something we wanted,” Vasquez said. “It was hard at times, but it was way more fun than it was hard.”

For Griffin, there was a lot to miss when the class was over: The joking and teasing, the dancing around to radio songs.

“I think we’re going to miss Ms. Stacy a lot,” she said.

A lot of other students will be missing their art teacher, as Stacy plans to retire at the end of the year.

The mural also was a parting gift from her to the new facility she had the chance to enjoy, and the future students she’ll never have the chance to teach.

“It’s part of what we do,” she said. “You leave a little bit of yourself, especially when you’re in the arts.”