It took more than two years, but students and visitors to Lakeridge Middle School can can enjoy the dancing colors of a fused glass mural on the north windows of the multipurpose room.

If only more of the students responsible could see it.

Jessica Peterson is the last ungraduated student member of the committee that selected Roger Nachman’s “Kaleidoscape in 12-part Harmony.” The process to find an art installation for Lakeridge’s rebuilt campus began when Peterson was a sixth grader and ended at the beginning of her eighth grade school year.

“Kaleidoscape,” Nachman, and the committee that brought the project to fruition were recognized Dec. 12, simultaneous to a student art show and choral concert.

Peterson made a strong and ultimately victorious argument for the installation’s medium to be glass, rather than a metal construct. Why? Just because she loves the look, she said. Call it a natural attraction to the Pacific Northwest’s glass art scene.

The committee began with a list of 100 artists and their proposals. That was soon narrowed down to 20. Peterson and the rest of the committee were impressed by the work submitted by Nachman, a “funny and nice” guy, Peterson said.

“He brought us little samples of what he was thinking about,” she said. “Sketches … of how he wanted the project to look.”

In turn, the committee gave Nachman constant feedback on how to tweak his designs.

“It was blue and white at first,” Peterson said. “It was mostly blue and white, and we wanted more color.”

More color was achieved by layering the glass, a process Peterson learned about while working with Nachman. The result is a cascade of colors that transition into each other.

The design itself was tweaked to reflect the school’s personality. Much of the piece is abstract, but elements of it are merely abstracted or, as Nachman describes it in his artist statement, “non-literal.” You might look at one of the shapes speckled on the glass and initially write it off as a blob; look closer and you see it resembles a musical note. This was purposeful, Peterson said: the windows the mural runs along lead to the campus’ music and art wing.

But the mural is meant for everyone.

“We wanted it to have a space for everyone to see it,” Peterson said. “(The multipurpose room) is where we eat lunch, so all the students will be able to see it every day.”