All hands on deck: Muse Elementary students help Pittsburgh artist complete gallery work
Courtesy of Morgan Northy
Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser poses with Muse Elementary School principal Tula Dziak and art teacher Natalie Blackburn in front of a portrait of Dziak, which is included in Mosser’s upcoming “Really Big Faces” gallery show. Fourth-graders from Jennifer Stealey’s class contributed their handprints to the work-in-progress.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
After adding their handprints to Tom Mosser’s massive portrait of Muse Elementary principal Tula Dziak, fourth-graders raise their hands and shout requests for take-home pieces of art by the Pittsburgh artist.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Muse Elementary fourth-graders show off or wait patiently for their artworks by Tom Mosser, a Pittsburgh-based artist who visited Natalie Blackburn’s art class April 25. Mosser’s “Really Big Faces” show opens downtown June 18 and features principal Tula Dziak.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Tom Mosser works closely with fourth-grader Luke Malecki, who adds his handprint to a larger-than-life painting of Muse Elementary principal Tula Dziak. The painting of Dziak will be featured in Mosser’s upcoming “Really Big Faces” show in downtown Pittsburgh.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The handprints of Muse Elementary School fourth-graders decorate the canvas sketch of principal Tula Dziak. Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser will add layers of paint in his signature loop and flow techniques to complete the portrait, which is featured in the upcoming “Really Big Faces” art show in the city’s downtown.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Paint drips from Roman Malecki’s hands as he prepares to add color to a portrait of Muse Elementary principal Tula Dziak by Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser, left.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
While classmates look on, Roman Malecki celebrates his addition of several handprints to a portrait of Muse Elementary principal Tula Dziak. Dziak’s likeness will be featured in Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser’s gallery show “Really Big Faces,” which opens in the city’s downtown June 18.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Art class was a little more colorful April 25, when Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser led demonstrations of his loop and flow techniques and invited students like Emma Warzinski, right, to add handprints to a piece that will be showcased in his upcoming “Really Big Faces” exhibition. The Muse Elementary fourth-graders delighted in helping paint the portrait of their principal Tula Dziak.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Fourth-graders at Muse Elementary line up to add their handprints to a portrait of principal Tula Dziak. Dziak’s likeness is one of 75 vibrant artworks featured in Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser’s upcoming exhibit, “Really Big Faces.”
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Carter Milani makes his mark on artist Tom Mosser’s really big portrait of Tula Dziak, Muse Elementary principal, while his friend Drew Justice looks on.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Tom Mosser helps fourth-grader Allison Beam add her handprint to his massive portrait of principal Tula Dziak. Mosser said the idea to incorporate students’ hands came to him suddenly, and he had a blast teaching and talking with students at Muse Elementary.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Using the wooden end of a paintbrush, Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser demonstrates the loop technique – a fluid, circular-style of painting he pioneered. At the request of fourth-grade Muse Elementary students, Mosser painted eyes, sharks, turtles and hearts, which he signed and gifted to the kids during an interactive assembly April 25.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser fills a funnel with bright yellow paint and demonstrates the flow technique, a way of creating by guiding dripping paint over a canvas to create fluid images. Mosser visited fourth-graders in Muse Elementary art teacher Natalie Blackburn’s classroom April 25.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser lectures during an art class at Muse Elementary, where he also demonstrated his loop and flow painting techniques before inviting fourth-graders to add their handprints to a really big painting of principal Tula Dziak. The painting of Dziak is going to be featured in Mosser’s upcoming gallery show, “Really Big Faces.”
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Tom Mosser explains his upcoming gallery show “Really Big Faces” to fourth-graders at Muse Elementary. The Pittsburgh artist introduced students to those faces showcased in his exhibition and invited them to help paint their principal, Tula Dziak, whose portrait – a really big face – represents educators in show.
Muse Elementary School principal Tula Dziak has a really big face.
“At first I was like, I don’t want a really big face,” said Dziak, who earlier this week welcomed Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser to Canon-McMillan School District. “I think it’s impressive.”
A vibrant rendition of Dziak will appear in Mosser’s upcoming gallery show, “Really Big Faces,” a three-week exhibition that opens in downtown Pittsburgh on June 18 and features larger-than-life portraits of men and women from all walks of life in the artist’s signature Jackson Pollock-infused pop-art realism style.
“It’s just a celebration of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers,” said Mosser, while standing in art teacher Natalie Blackburn’s classroom, where – sporting a backwards ball cap and paint-splattered jeans – he hosted an interactive assembly for Blackburn’s fourth-graders April 25.
Originally, “Really Big Faces” was a series of really big (5 feet 8 inches by 4 feet 8 inches, to be precise) canvas portraits depicting friends and local celebrities – like former Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto – set to debut as a solo exhibition in March 2020.
“(The show) was March 13, the exact same weekend of the shutdown,” said Mosser. “I wasn’t happy about the circumstances, but I could see that I wanted to do more. I just kept making (paintings).”
As the pandemic wore on, Mosser carried on, using his really big project to connect with others at a time when the world felt lonely.
“It was kind of cool because it was a way of kind of meeting people during COVID,” Mosser said.
Since beginning the project three years ago, the artist has finished 75 massive portraits, all of which will be on display. One of his subjects is David Motley, who serves on the board of directors for the Energy Innovation Center – a magnificent building boasting skylights, floor-to-ceiling windows and a spectacular view of Pittsburgh’s downtown.
When Motley offered the center for Mosser’s series, the artist accepted.
“It’s a dream scenario,” Mosser said. “It’s right beside the old Mellon Arena site. It’s huge, it’s magnificent.”
And it’s filled with really big faces of dentists and frontline health-care heroes alongside a Ukraine native; dancers and journalists next to a police officer injured in the attack on Tree of Life. Singers and songwriters and University of Pittsburgh associate professor Carlos Badenes, who helped discover the smallest known black hole. A portrait of Curt Wooten, of Pittsburgh Dad fame. And, of course, Dziak, elementary school principal.
“There’s just regular people, and then there are some known people. There’s some medical people, there’s a grocery store worker, there’s a postal worker,” Mosser said, pointing to faces scattered on Blackburn’s art class floor. “Those are people that still had to work. Tula (Dziak) represents everybody in education.”
When Blackburn learned about Mosser’s “Really Big Faces” project, she nominated Dziak as a portrait subject, citing the principal’s dedication to students and their families throughout the pandemic.
“I heard her story, where she was going to kids’ homes and making sure people had food and, sometimes, clothes, and their school equipment,” said Mosser. “Natalie told me about Tula (Dziak). Natalie was instrumental in making this happen.”
Dziak and Blackburn met Mosser at his studio in 2020, where the artist photographed the principal (he works from photos of his subjects). Dziak read updates on her likeness through Mosser’s social media pages, but did not see the painting until earlier this week, when Mosser arrived to Muse with the principal’s face – a work-in-progress he hoped Jennifer Stealey’s class might help him complete.
The fourth-grade class sat transfixed as Mosser paced the room, introducing students to his “Really Big Faces” – including his dog Lucas, a painting of whom went viral in 2013, effectively kickstarting Mosser’s career. The kids watched wide-eyed while Mosser used both hands to demonstrate the loop technique he pioneered by drawing an eye in a series of circular motions.
“Nobody draws like you, nobody paints like you,” Mosser said, dipping a wooden stick into bright yellow paint. “You are all different. There’s no right or wrong way to make art.”
After painting sharks, turtles and hearts on a sheet of paper lining the art room table (all requests by students), Mosser invited the fourth-graders to dip their hands in paint and help paint the massive portrait of Dziak that will be featured in the artist’s upcoming show.
“Make me look good,” Dziak joked, while students eagerly plunged their hands into beige, blue and yellow paint, and laughed in delight as their handprints decorated the artwork.
“It’s humbling to be selected to represent educators, really, throughout the state,” she continued, while helping students wash paint from their hands at the double-basin sink in the back of the art room. “For him to come up with this idea of using the kids just, to me, is amazing, because that’s really what we’re here for. To have him incorporate them into the painting, it was just amazing.”
The honor of learning from and helping Mosser complete a painting of their principal, an artwork that will be featured in a show, was not lost on the students.
“It was really cool because he’s a famous painter and not a lot of kids get to do this,” said Emma Warzinski.
The students were also tickled when, near the end of class, Mosser handed signed pieces to each one of them to take home.
“Awesome,” Addison Beam exclaimed, taking a seat near her friends.
Blackburn, too, thought the event was awesome. She was excited for her students to meet a working artist, and thrilled Mosser took the time to teach and encourage the young people.
“When they’re in here, you really see a completely different side to them,” said Blackburn. “I don’t know if they just aced a math test or they just bombed it. It’s good that they have that, you know, place where they can just be creative, be themselves.”
That’s the beauty of art, Mosser agreed – there’s no true or false, no multiple choice.
“That’s the thing about art,” Mosser said, “there’s no right and wrong. Kids do great artwork. They’re not afraid to mess up, or of being judged. You need to have that attitude. I like for people, adults, too, to see the possibilities that they can be creative.”