Erynn Ziegler, an art and psychology student at ACC, led the event titled Clouds of Positivity as a way to learn more about people and self-expression.

Once the mural is finished, each canvas will hang in front of the art center to welcome all going through.

Counting on others to contribute to the project, Ziegler was worried that the mural might not have enough contribution or that the self-expressions might become too overwhelming for the viewer, so she decided that once the event was finished, Ziegler and a friend would add clouds to each image, encompassing all imagery as a metaphor for thoughts passing through our heads.

This led to her titling the communal work as “Clouds of Positivity.”

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Multiple students work on a mural in front of the ACC Fine Art Center on Wednesday. One student spray-painted a car on the canvas.

Ziegler wants people to not overthink and to rather create anything that comes to their mind. She said the mural is both an experimental piece to see people’s impulsive creativity, but it’s also meant to give students freedom from self-criticism.

“I think more people just get blocked and tell ourselves that we’re not any good instead of looking at the process of why we’re blocked to begin with,” Ziegler said. “This is meant to open things up, taking the pressure off and creating a positive, collaborative experience.”

She also said she brought a certain color palette that would bring a calming sensation to the art.

“Researchers are studying what kinds of art do different things to our brain,” Ziegler said. “Using the principles of evidence-based art, I grabbed a color palette from a few studies I pulled from. But one that really stood out to me was a study on blue space, and the blues that are found in water in nature because blues and greens and natural colors can be very calming.”

Most contributing artists that passed along were other ACC students, looking to spray paint anything that they could think of.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Erynn Ziegle, right, shows Amanda Phillips how to utilize plastic bags and tape to border spray painting images on Wednesday in front of the ACC Fine Art Center.

Other students used different means to deliver their creative visions, sometimes using their hands, tape, or even plastic bags to bring texture to the paint.

Depictions of trees, hearts, cars, and other iconography laid on the canvas, filling more of the space with each passing artist.

“I guess I like nature and fruit,” Amanda Phillips, an ACC student, said about their image of a lemon. “It’s very bright and sweet, but lemons obviously are really sour. So it’s kind of meant to give bittersweet vibes and kind of the first thing that came to my mind.”

The event and mural overall depicted an important topic to Ziegler, as she had issues with creative blocks for five years and did not do any work during that time.

“I’ve been making art since high school, then photography art, until I just stopped,” Ziegler said. “In art school, you’re at risk of becoming blocked because somebody is always critiquing your work. You don’t really get to do the experimental stuff, so this is something that I can do that I would’ve done for myself, so I wanted to do this for the younger people I’m in school with so those negative thought patterns might stop.”