Art Meets Science at Weaver Elementary

When future students step onto Weaver Elementary School’s campus, they’ll see what this year’s 255 pupils left behind: a two-wall mural featuring sea life on and above the ocean floor.

Under the tutelage of muralist Greg Pickens, every student at the Rossmoor school has labored on the mural for the last two months. It has been submitted to the Wyland Ocean Mural Challenge of America, a Wyland Foundation event that encourages students to learn about art as well as science. The winning school receives an award.

Weaver Principal Erin Kominsky, who holds a bachelor’s degree in marine science and points out that Weaver’s mascot is a whale, said the PTA-sponsored project has given students a chance to use their imaginations.

“The neat thing is when the kids come by in the morning and show the adults what they did,” Kominsky said, peering at the crab, fish, plants, squid and other sea creatures that grace the media center’s exterior. Inside, the K-4 students learn about sea life in a room complete with an aquarium, books, whale murals and posters.

Pickens, co-founder of the Long Beach-based ARK (Artists Reaching Kids) Studio and Gallery, started the mural by providing students with an ocean environment on which to draw. Once he explained the color wheel, the young artists combined that with what they’d learned about sea life in class.

Because they knew so much about sea life, “it made it a much easier art project,” said Pickens, who has helped other students to complete 30 murals in the last six years.

“Typically, [students] go through brainstorming with what to create,” Pickens said.

The students’ multicolored handprints recently completed the mural’s coral reef. Pickens then refined the mural, filling in the gaps and preserving it with a glossy acrylic coating. That way, the 255 artists can return as adults to admire their handiwork.

But future students need not be jealous of this class’ accomplishment. “We have many walls,” Kominsky said. “Our cup of walls runneth over.”