An East Coulee artist has left her mark on another school in the area, and this time it is to celebrate the centennial of Three Hills.
Janet Grabner of Carocol Clay Studio has completed a mosaic mural at Three Hills School to celebrate 100 years of the town. This was her third and largest installation yet, spanning 12 feet by 8 feet.
“It is the biggest I have done so far,” said Grabner, and they are very happy with it.”
Grabner completed a mural at Greentree School a few years ago. It was success and is enjoyed daily by staff and students. It has also been noticed by others in the school division. Last year she was commissioned to do her second installation at Westmount School in Strathmore and then this one in Three Hills. She said teacher Carmen Reece thought of the mural for Three Hills.
“She saw my other murals and thought the school could use something for the centennial,” said Grabner. “She wanted an image of the old school house, the old tree that stood in the yard, and the three hills, and said I could go from there.”
While Grabner is commissioned to do the artwork, it is a collective effort. She supplies students and staff with the tiles—in this case, 500—and they decorate them how they see fit. She takes the tiles back to her studio in East Coulee where she and her husband and artist John Dahm glaze and fire the tiles. The tiles are then brought back to the school where they are assembled into the installation.
This project took her about month to complete. While it is laborious, with experience comes efficiency. She has learned to build these latest installations much quicker than her original piece.
Grabner says she enjoys this type of project, taking her out of the studio and into the public. This was the first mural she has done at a school with high school aged kids, and she felt it was important for them to see her working.
“I told the kids when I made the tiles that I got hooked doing art in high school. Nobody told me I could make a living as an artist, as a kid I had to figure that out myself. So I was nice for them to see that it is possible.”
She has been talking with another school that is interested in one of her tile murals.
“I would be happy to do one mural a year, that would be just great,” Grabner said.