By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Bits and pieces of Lake Orion will be shining in a new Children’s Hospital to promote a more natural environment for the patients within its walls.
Lake Orion art students from Waldon, Scripps and Oakview Middle Schools, along with art students from Lake Orion High School, were invited to participate in this community art project with 18 other schools across Oakland and Macomb counties.
From cutting tiny glass pieces to arranging the colors into bright designs depicting the four seasons, students created seven by three foot mosaics that will be hung up around the hospital under construction in Troy, which is expected to be opened later this year.
‘There is a lot of research that links art, color and a more nurturing environment to healing,? Lake Orion Art Department Chair Jessica Kropog, who teaches at Waldon Middle School, said.
Kropog said it was the biggest art installation she has organized for the district, and with the help of Oakview Middle School art teacher Stephanie Harris, Scripps Middle School art teacher Jerry Brazeau, Lake Orion High School art teachers Sam Rimi and Melissa Wilson, the teachers coordinated almost 20 art classes to bring the mosaic panels to life.
First students were given an assignment: design the four panels according to winter, spring summer and fall.
Students thought of designs associated with children and healing, weaving inspirational words such as ‘bloom? and ‘grow? to scenes of bright glass birds, flowers and plants spiraling upwards.
Two professional artists were sent in to assist students in their endeavors and taught the classes how to cut glass tiles into the tiny shapes that linked the mosaics together, to bring out different shading in the glass, and to work as a team.
‘The students saw their work come to life,? Kropog said.
The artists drew out students? designs onto big, wooden boards, and over the course of several months the students pieced together the art which will soon be glistening positive energy throughout the hospital.
Kropog said the students will be invited the dedication ceremony when the hospital opens later this fall, if all goes according to schedule.
‘I think it was really cool for the kids to interact with working artists. They talked a lot about community based art and using art make get people working together as a team. And to give art a purpose. For something like a hospital it gives it a deeper meaning for the patients to know that other kids made the mosaics for them. It will be a legacy for our district.??