Unity and togetherness
By Aimee Walsh
A NEW colourful mural was unveiled at a local school in hopes to promote positivity and unity amongst students for their return to school.
The mural at St Kilian’s Senior School in Kingswood, Tallaght was painted by past pupil Emma Blake, who has become well-known for her impressive art works around Dublin.
St Kilian’s Senior School 3rd Class students with Artist Emma Blake at the mural on the school wall on Tuesday
Principal Barry Frisby said that the mural was a collaboration between the students and Emma, and the theme of the mural is ‘unity and togetherness’.
“[I had an idea] I wanted something done with the exterior of our building, there hasn’t been anything done with it in quite a while and I was looking at it and felt it was quite ugly to be honest, bare and boring.
“I saw during the first lockdown, that artist Emma Blake had a good profile, and she was getting some attention on the news and social media about murals she was completing in Kingswood.
“I thought it looked very good and I looked into Emma and came across more of her stuff online and she was very creative and very talented, I brought it to the board about getting the exterior painted and making it bright and colourful.”
To get the students involved in the artwork, the school gave the pupils the theme of ‘unity and togetherness’ and told them to create pieces of artworks of any style surrounding it. The students submitted the artwork, which Mr Frisby then passed on to Emma for inspiration.
Artist Emma Blake returned to her old school to paint a colourful mural which was inspired by students in the school
“The one thing I wanted was something bright, colourful and to lift spirits. I thought it would be good for the community as well. It is just something to keep the kids focused and something that the kids would have ownership over and develop the kids voices.
“It will be there for a long time now so even when the kids have moved on, they’ll be able to walk past and see and feel like they had a sense of belonging with the school and that they contributed in some part towards that piece of art.
“It will remind them of the hard times as well but the whole idea is positivity and looking forward to better times,” Mr Frisby explained.
When asked about the inspiration she got from the students, artist Emma Blake said: “The students’ drawings were full of vibrant colours and energy, there was a lot of imagery of friendships and kids together supporting each other. Their drawings lent themselves really well to the design, it wasn’t a hard process using them as inspiration for this piece.”
“A strong theme in all of the students’ drawings was children coming together to celebrate and play, and I wanted to encapsulate that in this mural,” Emma added.
“It was really great being back in my old school creating artwork. The walls I painted didn’t exist back when I was in the school, our yard was there instead, but they got this PE hall built on it since then.
“It was such a great canvas. My mam went digging out photos of me as a kid winning an art competition in the school, I think she wants to bring it down to them.
“It wasn’t a quick piece anyway. I was working on it for a few weeks, the walls are pretty big, and there are eight portraits in it.
“There was also a delay with a batch of paint, as a result of Brexit and everything else going on, so we had to take a break while waiting for that. But we got there eventually,” Emma concluded proudly.
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