Mosaic cougar now oversees Coronado campus

When the sunlight hits it, students at Coronado High School can now see a colorful mosaic of their mascot - a 3-by-4-foot cougar head - in the big windows above the cafeteria entrance. LEFT: Sue March stands on a ledge inside the cafeteria's second-floor window with the new Cougar mosaic. Although the photo was actually shot from a mechanical lift in the foyer, the view is the same as it is through an interior window on the second floor hallway just west of it. (Note how differently the colors appear, evidently because of the indirect sunlight, in comparison with the photo at lower right.) UPPER RIGHT: Most of the Art Club members that worked on the mosaic last year are shown. Front row, (from left): Sean Noonan, Emily Ulrich, Steven Heaver, Natalina Aiello, Juliet Hays. Back row (from left): Jessica Finkbeiner, Chris Bunting, Remi Stout, Jacob Avis, Bailey Gearhart, Ian Demuth. Not pictured are DJ Satterthwaite, Tasha Elliott, Izzy Ogas, Lena Demuth and Brandon DeMoss. LOWER RIGHT: The mosaic in progress. Left: Westside Pioneer photo; upper right and lower right, courtesy of Sue March        The project by students in teacher Sue March's after-school Art Club is also viewable from the second floor hallway of the main building's west wing.        March was happy to see the mascot mosaic lifted into place Oct. 16. “The students worked so hard on it,” she said. The project is part of an ongoing beautification effort she hopes to continue. “We're trying to get more art on campus.”        The Art Club started making the mosaic last January. Using a cougar image they liked on the Internet as a model, the 15 or so students drew a picture of it full size and placed it under a 3-by-4-foot acrylic sheet “so we could see where to put the glass,” March explained. After that came the cutting and placing of close to 500 pieces of eight different colors. Some were scrap pieces that March already had; others had to be purchased to meet color needs that became defined as the work progressed. Costs were covered by her art budget.        One skill students learned was how to cut glass and use nippers to adjust pieces to fit.        Self-critiquing of the project also occurred. “We changed it several times until we had it looking more like a cougar,” March recalled.        Meeting Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m., the club worked on the mosaic throughout the '09 spring semester. March estimated the overall group time at about 40 hours.        The task of gluing the final product to the acrylic was taken on by the art teacher and her sister, Cathy Kautza, over the summer. “It was a sloppy, bloody mess,” March said, “but we got it done.”        She also gave kudos to Jim Hilton of District 11 Facilities for making the mosaic's frame and directing its hanging; also to Coral Cornish from the Full Spectrum Glass shop on Fillmore Street “for her help in the techniques and processes.” Westside Pioneer article