For the 2016 Making A Mark® project at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers I chose to share my method of work as a collaborative project. I paint large scale murals, and use the grid system as means to transfer an image to the wall. The image becomes alive from many smaller squares, being transformed piece by piece into a one bigger, meaningful picture. This 4’x4’ piece is made of 16 1’x1’ squares, on which I sketched the outline of the design. Each square was given to a child, on which they got to choose from a number of mediums to increase the fun level and have them experiment with as many materials as possible. We worked with paper cuts, buttons, pompoms, glitter, fabric, foam and more. The little artists were required to generally keep the pre-sketched outline structure and the color scheme. I feel that the grid system is meaningful in so many ways – First, the aspect of unity and collaboration - many different people contribute to the whole. Second, diversity – we can see that in spite of the fact that the squares are very different from each other, in many ways possible, all of them look beautiful together. Third, I am by nature inquisitive and curious, and wanted to give a little bit of that (and have fun myself!) to the kids – by bringing so many different materials for them to try and play with. The designs that I chose reflect animals in our area. I wanted to do something neutral, something that everybody likes, which is to me, nature. Nature speaks to everybody – young or old, rich or poor, sick or healthy. The children, volunteers and I had a lot of fun. We basically made a royal mess every time I arrived, and by the end of the session I’d put everything together and get to experience the magic of it all making sense as a whole. It taught me a lot, and I hope it gave something back to the kids and the people involved. Thank you for letting me be a part of this project and get to spend time in this place, which really makes you understand what the important things in life are. I hope to be working again for this noble cause. Anat Ronen

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