The Paper Flower Fields Mural at the 2012 Carlsbad Art Splash

After seeing an article in the North County Times showcasing the "Recycled Avocado Tree," Joni Miringoff of the Carlsbad Flower Fields in Northern San Diego County contacted me about this year's Art Slash, and if I could possibly do a project for the children to participate on during the festival.

After a bit of brainstorming the idea for the paper flower mural of the Carlsbad Flower Fields was born!

The Flower Fields are the most breathtaking landscape of multi-colored ranunculus. When in season, the grounds are a rainbow of color that can be seen all the way from the freeway. They take great pride in educating children on conservation and offer a large variety of activities for children during the months they are open.

Staying true to my recycled nature, I wanted to do some sort of mural of the Flower Fields that would last all through the year, but including a recycled activity that could spark children and adult's creativity for reusing everyday household items to make art.

I decided on using recycled paper to create rolled paper flowers that could be attached to the mural that closely resemble the Flower Field's ranunculus. After presenting the idea to the board, everyone loved it and promised to begin saving their newspapers and magazines for the mural.

Here are a few photos of the mural's progress.

Here we are on day 1 with my lovely little helper Brigitte, preparing the paper into color-sorted bins so that the kids could sift through and pick their favorite magazine or card-stock pages. 

As you can see, I constructed the mural out of 4 4'x8' sheets of particle board, attached together with door hinges. The mural is supported by triangular braces and covered in chicken wire so that the wire "stems" of the paper flowers could be easily attached to the mural. 

We all had a great time making flowers together. Both kids and parents participated and took home a fun lesson that can easily be done at home. There's nothing like a bouquet of flowers that will never wilt and don't cost a penny!

Here is the mural after day 2, just before breaking down to be taken to its new home! Though the board was not completely covered, the Flower Fields has decided to keep the mural on display at the flower fields and during the flower season the mural will be used as a fun activity for kids to continue adding flowers to until it is as full as the Flower Fields themselves!