TEACHER’S MURALS A CLASS ACT
Misha Smart has used her artistic prowess to get children involved in projects throughout Greater Victoria
Misha Smart made her mark at James Bay Community School long before she started working there as a teacher four years ago. Two of her early murals adorn outside walls of the school and the adjoining community centre, both of them commissions that helped Smart pay her way through the elementary-education program at the University of Victoria. Not surprisingly, her degree included a specialty in art.
“It’s always been a piece of what I’ve taught,” said 29-year-old Smart, who was raised on Piers Island, off Swartz Bay. “I’ve grown up teaching kids art and all through university as a job, and then worked as an artist myself to help put myself through university.”
Other work during Smart’s university days included producing street banners for the City of Victoria and selling original creations and prints.
Since being hired in the Greater Victoria school district six years ago, Smart has painted more murals at several district sites.
“I’ve been to Strawberry Vale, Vic West, Sir James Douglas, View Royal,” she said. “I’ve done some project work at Braefoot Elementary.”
The newest one, in the James Bay school library, has just been completed.
The murals, always done with student help, can be impressively large. The one at View Royal is about 15 metres long.
“It incorporates First Nations animals and elements into a schoolcommunity environment,” Smart said.
Getting students involved is the fun part, as seen in the exterior mural at James Bay school.
“It was during the summer and the kids came in from the daycare and put their handprints around a flower,” Smart said. “It’s just bringing that piece of them into it.”
Combining her love of teaching with her love of art has been an amazing experience, she said.
“I’ve been lucky because the two things have really come together for me,” Smart said. “Just being able to facilitate these art projects that I do all over the district, coming in as an artistin-residence, has been really spectacular for me.”
Her signature mural projects begin with her meeting school staff. “We talk about school values and what creates their special school culture, the things that make the school unique.”
Smart uses the ideas that emerge and draws a black outline of the mural. Then, the students do their part by filling in all of the colours.
“It takes a number of days for the kids to do the colour, but they get to work large-scale, they get to work with acrylic paints,” she said. “It’s a unique experience because kids don’t always get a chance to work large-scale on something that’s going to be hung and valued within a school.”
Students quickly realize that their contributions are important, Smart said.
“Nobody’s left out, everybody does it and that’s what makes it complete,” she said. “I’m just facilitating the project and they become the artists of the project.
“They’re the ones that walk up to it and say: ‘I painted that.’ ”
Smart describes her artistic work beyond school walls as “West Coast graphic.” “It’s got a similar style to what I do with the children,” she said. “It’s got a heavy black outline.”
Smart, whose work is regularly displayed at Ferris’ Downstairs Grill, said the prevalent outlines in all she does come from admiring the work of her father, a stained-glass artist.