Argenziano After-School Art Club Creates Mosaics for School Garden

In Ms. Diana Taremi’s Art Club it’s all about line, form, color and composition. More than a dozen middle school students started on several projects on Monday afternoons; creating art both for themselves and making projects to beautify the school. Their first assignment: Georgia O’Keefe-style painting on large canvases for the first floor hallway. The bright, lush flower canvasses are still works in progress.

The students are also creating flower tile mosaics that will be set in cement and used as stepping stones in the school’s kitchen garden.

Ms.Emily Bhargava, a mosaic artist from Somerville, donated her time and bags and boxes of materials; tiles from large to small to the art club for the project. On a recent afternoon, Ms. Bhargava spent an afternoon at Art Club teaching Ms. Taremi and the students how to assemble the mosaics.

First the students painted large pictures of flowers. They covered these with plastic wrap to protect them; then layered mesh on the paintings to which they glued colorful tiles. “Beautiful!” says Ms. Taremi of the work. Ms. Taremi demonstrates tile placement and gluing to the Art Club students. Sixth graders Graciela and Jaime work on their mosaics, choosing just the right colors and gluing the tiles in place. The mosaics will be set in cement and grouted before being placed in the garden to be used as stepping stones for Argenziano’s future gardeners in the school’s kitchen garden.

An excerpt from the Argenziano School Newsletter.

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