Art is alive
at Hancock

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

There was a big cat hiding among the branches of the rain forest, a monkey up a tree, an anaconda wrapped around one, frogs, birds, tropical flowers and butterflies galore all in one hallway at the John Hancock School in Morrell Park.
The tiled animals and their 36-foot-by-10-foot habitat are the culmination of a nine-month mural project created by students in the school’s gifted program and led by the demonstration school’s art teacher, Robyn Miller.
A demonstration school is one where teachers, who are leaders in their fields, demonstrate the latest educational and best practice techniques to public, private and charter school teachers from all over the city.
According to principal Rosemary Cataldi, Miller was in the school every day during the summer without any pay.
"I felt like I was coming to my studio and not to work," Miller said.
Miller, who has been at Hancock for more than 22 years, began working with students in different grade groups last year, along with the school librarian and science teacher. Students researched and studied about the rain forest before making their frogs, butterflies or animals and brainstorming about the project.
The fifth-graders drew sketches of what they thought it should look like, and Miller put them all together to incorporate something from everyone. She thought she had a vision of what it would look like. That vision was only half the size of the finished project.
"But when you’re an artist (the art had) a life of its own, had to go higher and wider," she said.
That life continued to bloom until the end. Miller noticed that a stray branch that turned the corner from the mural wall and onto the one adjoining it seemed to be missing something.
She called fifth-grader Zuri Hoffman at home over the weekend to ask her to take a commission to create a tropical bird to perch upon that branch.
"I was excited that she chose me," Zuri said.
According to Miller, the 10-year-old came in on Monday with six photos of tropical birds.
"She did her research and came prepared, just like a real artist," Miller said.
The art teacher heard from many that they see something different every time they look at the mural. So Miller approached the home and school association, which agreed to purchase benches for the hallway that lead from outside to the lunchroom so that the students or staff could sit down and take it all in.
The mural masterpiece is not the first at Hancock. There are about 15 tile murals throughout the school, according to Cataldi.
Miller believes the rain-forest mural is finally complete. The last things she added were a ceramic-leafed frame mounted on an adjacent wall that holds the story behind the mural. Below it, a ceramic leaf is engraved with "To Hancock with love." ••