Drawing on the wall - a lesson for all artists
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

A Fitchburg State College lesson became a learning moment for not only artist Ann Marie Labollita but also for 18 Ashby children.

Labollita, an Asbhy resident, is a certified art teacher in Massachusetts and is teaching students out of her studio, The Artful Hand Studio. As part of keeping her certification Labollita took a class at FSC on community service learning.

"You have to write a unit on a community service learning project," she said. "It is really about identifying a need. We can really help this new library by enhancing the room."

She said she designed the mural project as a way of "giving kids more of a connection to the library."

For the project she recruited 18 children between 6 and 12 years old, who had taken her summer art workshops.

"I am proud to have worked with them. I am grateful for the experience it provided me," Labollita said.

The artists are Chris and Katie Alfond, Alex and Collin Amadon, Gabe and Aidan Blake, Amanda and Sarah Kenney, Joe and Sam Laszlo, Sage McPherson, Cameron and Leighton Moylan, Abby Olmstead, Marina Scheid, Alex Suarez and Benjamin and Elizabeth Sutton-Brown.

"The dedication … I couldn't have asked for more. It was phenomenal," Labollita said.

The group met on Fridays after school and on Saturdays. They worked for about 20 hours studying and doing the prep work for the mural. And then it took more than 17 hours to transfer the picture from the small drawings in the studio to a sketch on the library wall and then another 30 hours to paint the piece.

"Kids didn't miss often and there were 18 of them," she said

The students learned about local murals as well as the process mural painters follow. Labollita said the group journaled their lessons and even visited the Rufus Porter murals in Townsend as well as student murals at Squannock School. She said they looked at the subject matter as well as the way the murals were painted.

The next step for the children was to begin brainstorming about the contents of this mural, which focused on the aspects of a library and the nature around the building, including animals.

"I have done very little work on the mural itself," she said.

She added that the handprints around the doorframe on the wall serve as the group's signatures.

The material for the project was bought with a grant from the Mass Service Alliance grant. The grant, which was for nearly $600, paid for paint, drop cloths, brushes, as well as the celebration for the opening, artist interviews and a video the group produced on the interviews.

The mural was done using acrylic paints, which were a combination of wall, craft and artist paints.

"Any kind of acrylic paints can be used together," she said.

She said the style of mural blends through the different ages and the different levels because of the overall drawing and the large areas of color.

"Because we had one drawing there was a certain mission," Labollita said. "We talked about what we had, and with each part we discussed things. You only see the difference when you look at the individual animals."

The bottom of the mural was painted by some older boys, who melding color

She said with each animal it was a matter of looking through the typical two-dimensional colors to the overall visual sense of the animal.

The children will celebrate the completion of a mural in the Children's Room of the Ashby Free Public Library at 812 Main St. on Saturday, April 7, at 11 a.m.