A big fish will soon be swimming the halls of Cedar Lane School in Fulton, created by art students to memorialize former student and art lover Lori Landsman, who died in February 2013.
A relic from Baltimore's Fish Out of Water street sculptures in 2001, students are decorating the large fiberglass fish, shaping hundreds of colorful scales out of clay and designing imprints to give each one its own flair.
At the end of the school day, Leslie Landsman, Lori's mother and manager of volunteer programs at the Baltimore Aquarium, helps decorate the fins with clear stones and recycled stained glass with Cedar Lane art teacher Gena Luoma. Former teacher-turned volunteer Steve Kucey uses his caulk gun to glue the pieces on the sculpture.
A small picture of Lori will be hidden within the scales as a plaque below reads, "In memory of the joyous life of Lori Landsman."
"People always say to me that what they remember most about Lori is that she was always happy," Landsman said. "We hardly have a picture of her where she doesn't have a smile on her face. I think part of her purpose on Earth was just to bring joy to other people and I think that she did that."
Lori was diagnosed with a chromosome abnormality, 18-ring syndrome, that left her 18th chromosome damaged. Despite Lori's physical and developmental disabilities, Landsman said her daughter was an "amazingly joyful person" who was always interested in learning about others. When she wasn't making new friends, Lori was spending quality time with her family as they toured the Baltimore Aquarium, visited the pet store or watched her dive into crafting.
In that time, Landsman said, Cedar Lane remained in Lori's heart during her 19 years of enrollment.
"Lori was very happy [at Cedar Lane]," Landsman said. "She learned a lot, she loved a lot and people loved her a lot. [The school] was really a special place for Lori. It was a special place for me because she became the person that she was through everything that happened here."
As Landsman began thinking of ways to keep Lori's spirit alive, Baltimore's Fish Out of Water project later came to mind. Landsman had served as the founder and creative director of the street art project.
"We ended up with 180 decorated fish throughout the city of Baltimore," Landsman said. "As a result of that project, I ended up with an undecorated fish that's been living in my basement for a really long time."
Landsman called Luoma in spring 2014 to help jumpstart the project, and students have been at work ever since. Luoma said she has spent the last 20 years creating new and innovative ways for students without fine motor skills to express themselves with the help of different tools.
"My whole job is about adapting things [and] finding out what their strengths are and coming up with creative ways that they can do what any other artist does," Luoma said. "We don't do elementary projects. We do sophisticated projects that dignify their abilities."
Since most students' natural grasp is a closed fist, Luoma said she works with Kucey to design handles out of PVC pipe and foam pipe insulation, allowing students to grip stamps and paint brushes to decorate the clay.
"We have all kinds of shapes [on the scales]," Luoma said. "Then, we fired them and glazed them … and divided the glazes up, so we have a number of [every color]."
Luoma, who is retiring from Cedar Lane on June 19, said she taught Lori in the classroom and felt the project symbolizes Lori's love of community and school.
"She was very talkative, so it was always a social time for her," Luoma said. "She was always the queen of the classroom. … If she was here now, she would be talking non-stop about the fish, the colors and what color to put where."
Kucey, who retired from teaching at the school in 2012, said he finds himself coming back to Cedar Lane because "it's in my blood."
"I also knew Lori quite well," Kucey said. "We used to always kid around when I was [teaching] in the high school. I've known all these guys for ever and ever and ever."
Hoping to complete the project before Luoma's departure, Landsman can't wait for students to enjoy the school's newest addition.
"I hope that with this project, people will just walk by the fish and they'll go, 'Wow, that's really cool!' and they'll smile," Landsman said. "If they do that, then I feel like Lori will still be here because she will continue to make people smile and she'll continue to bring joy to people."