Art teacher Andi Neeteson Lemkes came up with a unique idea for Black History Month that involved almost 600 of the art students at J.P. Taravella High School.
The students painted sections of an 80-foot-wide by 12-foot-high mural depicting the distinctive design of the Ndebele Tribe of South Africa.
The Ndebele people covered entire walls of their homes with bright, angular patterns using clay, cow dung and charcoal for color and bird feathers for paint brushes.
That's where the students veered from authenticity: "Our kids used tempera paint and black markers," said Lemkes, who was raised in South Africa.
"Each student created their own 12by 18-inch design that fit flush together to make one huge mural," she said.
But Lemkes' inspiration did not stop there.
Once she installed the mural in the school hallway, she piped in authentic South African music through a TV set to add sound to the art.
"This really set the mood," Lemkes said. "I also played African rhythms during class while the kids were drawing their designs."
Student Kat Vellos enjoyed the challenge of creating an Ndebele pattern, which must contain white, unpainted areas surrounded by heavy black lines and filled with primary colors.
"The Ndebele design is very specific and there are a lot of guidelines, but it forced me to get creative within the restrictions," Vellos said. "But not everyone liked all those restrictions."
One such student is Risa Baram, known in her class as the "artsy" one.
"My art is much freer, surrealistic and impressionistic," Baram said. "I found the Ndebele style to be too constricting for me."
Lemkes said the experience of working on geometric patterns is good for the students to expand their artistic horizons.
"These kids think that art is only Van Gogh," Lemkes said. "Some of these kids had no idea how to even use a ruler."
Luckily, English teacher Hyacinth Muir's class needed only to observe the art.
Muir incorporated Lemkes' art project into her lesson plan for Black History Month, she said.
"We are reading Cry the Beloved Country, which involves Zulu and Ndebele people," Muir said. "So I brought in Ms. Lemkes' art to show my class, so they could see the art work of the people they were reading about."
Student Andrew Steiner appreciated the insight into the culture.
"It helped me to know all about the Ndebele people when I went to design my section," Steiner said. "It gave me an idea of why their art looked like it did."
The Ndebele developed their unique style by adding man-made objects they saw around them, like razor blades, pencils, and letters and numbers from license plates, art teacher Linda Kohler said.
"The white man brought these things into their surroundings and the tribe painted these instead of using designs from nature, like circles or animals," said Kohler, whose class also contributed to the mural.
But because the Ndebele people could not read or write, they would draw their numbers backwards and their letters upside down, added Lemkes.
"This gave rise to the geometric and zigzag patterns that you now see models like Kathy Ireland wearing on their bathing suits in the latest Sports Illustrated," Lemkes said.