CRESTVIEW — Lance C. Richbourg School students stamped, rolled and wheeled their way through all-day art sessions in the school gymnasium.
The Nov. 15 sessions lasted about an hour per class. Students moved across a large sheet of paper, decorating it at will.
Dwayne Szot, founder of Zot Artz, created three different tools the students use to create personalized artwork. According to the ZA website, Szot grew up with a foster brother and sister who had cerebral palsy, and through his experiences with them, created a painting wheelchair tool and other items to help people with disabilities express themselves artistically.
Throughout the day, he and helpers from Baker's Junior ROTC, Richbourg teachers and parents showed students how to use the tools, and kept them supplied with paint.
The students picked out the foam cutout shapes they liked and arranged them how they wanted. Volunteers then used spray adhesive to affix the cutouts to paper, loaded them onto the tools, and added whichever color paint the students preferred.
The students put on the foot protectors, picked the color they wanted, got their tools loaded with paint and went to work.
The first classes started out with light and bright colors, and teacher Karen Lusk said colors would get progressively darker throughout the day. At the end of the sessions, the mural would be divided into parts and framed. The framed art would be distributed individually to all the students who helped make the mural. The students also painted posters they could take home from the event that day.
Between each class session, two large fans were used to help dry the mural.
Among the volunteers was Melanie Moore, education director for the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation of Destin. The MKAF sponsored the Zot Artz class as part of its community outreach Artist in Resident program.
Moore said MKAF members would also receive some mementoes from the event. Foam rollers used by students to decorate the murals would be cut and framed for them.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Richbourg students use innovative tools to create art