When I was in college I had the chance to work on a group mural project. It was one of the worst group experiences I ever had. It was before I knew much about group dynamics and obviously before the instructor knew anything about managing a classroom, or giving direction. It was a very diverse group, different ages and backgrounds and everyone seemed to have strong opinions. My opinion was to get the damn thing done on schedule and with some quality. I had already done a mural in the same building (that the instructor wanted to paint over!) In the course of the class there were incidents of raised voices, walk-outs, throwing stuff and general apathy. I tried to keep my head clear of that crap, but I will admit that without any instructor-leadership it was hard not to get resentful and pissed off. It did teach me one thing that stays with me today, how I don't want to teach. I never want to pretend more control than I can deliver and I always want to mediate any problems before they come to a head and sew more distrust, apathy and anger into the world and into the small communities that are made within my sphere of influence. I think our instructor at the time was thinking he was "doing us a favor" by giving us "real-life "group" experience" but that was all bullshit and all of the murals were crap. I think the one I worked on survived the longest out of the few others there were that got finished. I don't know if it is still there or not. If anyone wants to check and take a photo for me - Portland Oregon, Portland State University, Neuberger hall Southside Stairwell as you walk up. The illustration above was my proposed drawing for the mural -that in fact the group agreed on- but was then vetoed by the instructor. I never understood why. I think it had something to do with more group inclusion, but the group had decided on the images and I just stitched it into a single composition. Below is picture cut out from the school newspaper, then collaged into my sketchbook, then scribbled and collaged on top of, and finally scanned. It shows me at work up on the scaffolding.
