Jan 8, 2009 4:45 pm US/Central
School Children Create Bird's-Eye Obama Portrait
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Some Chicago school children helped create this large-scale, living portrait of President-elect Barack Obama.
Art For The Sky
Everywhere you turn, Barack Obama is there – on the television, in the newspaper. He's one of the most photographed men in the world.
On Thursday, some children from Alex Haley Academy and Wendell Smith Elementary offered a view of the president-elect we've never seen before. CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports.
It's a face that's so important to them. After all, the man who will be president is from Chicago. He's also a role model who's taught them outside the classroom. They recount the lessons they've learned:
--"Try your hardest," seventh-grader Jevon Smith says. "Obama did it. We can do it."
--"At this time we need to stick together," says Carlisle Myers, an eighth-grader.
--"Yes, I do believe he wants people to work together," fourth-grader Sekoya Pelayo says.
"Once you put your mind to it, you can become it," eighth-grader Devin Robinson says.
With the help of teachers, parents and artist Daniel Dancer, they put all of those ideas into practice. Dressed in black, white and red, they filled the school yard to become human drops of paint. It was chilly, but it was also calm and sunny –- good for a project of this scale.
Dancer and his team put Obama's image on a grid, then used mulch to make it on the ground.
"On Tuesday it snowed, so we had to redo it," Alex Haley Academy principal Vaida Williams said. "We've been working like banshees trying to get everything together for this."
From a crane, Dancer took the photo of all those individuals forming a whole. The kids said it illustrates an important point. The artist says it also sends a message to Obama.
"He's gotta be able to see the big picture. He's got to be able to see through the eyes of future generations," Dancer says.
Alex Haley Academy was the only school to respond to the artist's offer to do the project. Its principal says Obama and Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan -- who's going to Washington, too -- will get a copy of the "living portrait." So will all the children who participated.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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