Those Who Met the Sun

Those Who Met the Sun by artist Marian Bailey is the summation of a collection of projects that were completed at Tilden Middle School in Southwest Philadelphia. Over the course of a semester, Bailey worked with Tilden’s after school art program to create a mural that focused on folklore. The mural is a bright array of imagery that was inspired by three African American folktales that were read to the students. After hearing the stories, the students created their own characters that were inspired by the various characters in the stories. The students then made paper mache masks of their characters. After the masks were done, the group spent a few sessions taking Polaroids and film photos of the masks. All of the characters in the mural were created by the students. The snake and trees were directly inspired by the folk tales read by the students. The orange portals represent the journey that the group all took while reading the stories and being inspired by them.