Students at Webster Elementary School became paint droplets the afternoon of May 4 when artist-in-residence Daniel Dancer lined them up for an unusual photo.
Dancer, who hails from Mosier, Ore., was in Minneapolis to work with Webster students on a sky art project. He began creating images visible from the sky after a 1980s trip to Peru, where he saw the Nasca Lines.
After working with the kids to determine what they should depict (the kids decided on the school’s wolf mascot, the entire school — students, staff and families — assembled on the field behind the school, where Dancer, working from a firetruck, directed people wearing different colors of clothing to stand. When he had them all assembled, he asked them to kneel on the ground. It was an image literally built on the backs of children.
What is the name of the mural/piece that you and the students created? The Sky Wolf.
How did you (and the students) decide on the wolf for the mural? They wanted to do their mascot.
How long did it take, from start to finish, to come up with the idea and organize the event with the students? Over the course of a few months, we decided on the right image to create and then once I got there we completed the whole thing, working off and on in two days. Over a couple of months, the school gathered blue jeans from which to make the sky.
What were some of the difficulties or obstacles in creating the mural? Often the weather can be a factor. Rain. Mud. Too windy. Those are the enemies of sky art. We had the perfect weather so no obstacles there. It’s often hard to do a sizable piece like a wolf portrait with a school on the smaller size, and have it come out all filed in. Though we could have used another 50 dots-of-kid-color, I’m happy how it turned out.
If you were wondering about the “422” [alongside the wolf image] … It’s the current parts per million of CO2 in our atmosphere. I put the current level number in each image I do as a way to track the planet’s temperature so to speak, over time, through this art form. The last time the number was this high was several million years ago. There were no humans on the planet. The seas were 80 feet higher and crocodiles were swimming in what is now the Arctic. I’m afraid that’s where we’re heading if we don’t end our dependence on fossil fuels. Scientists have determined the safe level is 350.
Anything else you’d like to share? It was a pleasure to finally scratch Minnesota off the list of what I call my “stubborn states” … states that have not yet received an Art For the Sky project. There are only seven now: North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Arkansas, Idaho, Vermont and Rhode Island.
Artist Daniel Dancer directed people to their positions in the photo. (Photo by Mike Madison) The finished project, with a blue jeans sky and students, staff and parents making the face of the Sky Wolf. (Photo by Daniel Dancer, taken from a ladder firetruck.)
