Last year, A&M Consolidated High School biology teachers Eden Fielder and Leah Hood noticed they had students in their classes who would doodle and draw graffiti-style art in their work. So, the teachers asked their students a question: Would you be interested in starting a Graffiti Club?
A year later, the club has a handful of students who meet every other Wednesday for an hour after school. The club members have grown their graffiti skills and made signs to hang around the school building.
“I think all of our messages have been really positive and we obviously don’t promote vandalism and nobody in the club is really trying to do that,” Fielder said. “We do have people all the time that are like, ‘Well, isn’t that illegal?’ And we tell them, ‘No, it’s not as long as you have permission or you’re doing work on a paper.’ It’s a fun, creative outlet.”
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Consol junior Perri Newton has taken art classes since elementary school and is currently in Art III. Fielder was her biology teacher during her freshman year and she invited Newton to join the club. Newton said she’s learned how to improve her wording style through the club.
“We all get to learn together since none of us have done graffiti before,” Newton said. “I feel like everybody working together to share how they think we can do different styles is fun.”
At the fall, around 20 club members went on a field trip to The Yard in south College Station during the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley’s Mural Festival. Club members met with a husband and wife duo who taught them things like how to start graffiti walls and also why they enjoy that form of art.
Afterward, Hood, who is also a softball coach at Consol, was approached by Consol baseball coach Ryan Lennerton about the possibility of doing murals on the outside of the dugouts at the school’s baseball field. The two sides worked together to come up with what they wanted designed on the walls and the administration approved it. The Tiger Club and others donated supplies for the project.
On the away dugout, the club painted the school’s throwback logo that has recently been reintroduced and the words “Welcome to Tiger Town.” On the home dugout, the club painted the word “TIGERS” with a baseball and another school logo.
“He asked and we were like, ‘Sure! We’ll try and do it,’” Hood said. “He knew we were newbies at it, but I think it turned out OK.”
In total, the baseball dugout project took over 10 hours spread over the course of several days. Most of the project was completed over winter break. Newton and some other club members even spent time during final exam exemptions working on the project. Final touch-ups were completed a couple of weeks ago.
“We’ve practiced new spray paint techniques on how to make a line thinner or larger, so with the mural we put spray paint around all the lettering, so I think that was very interesting to work with,” Newton said.
The club has also made seasonal or holiday-themed signs to hang around the school, most with positive messages. Last year, they made a Valentine’s Day sign with the phrase “You are” in large letters as club members surrounded the saying with smaller words around it in graffiti-style.
Right now, the Graffiti Club is working on designing the interior of the school’s elevator. It will include a Tiger head with a jungle theme around it. After that, the club will work on making a sign for the end of the school year.
“I would never say I could just go out and paint or draw, but graffiti allows for mistakes,” Hood said. “It’s easy to fix and do it again. It’s very forgiving.”
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