SOUTH JORDAN — After the last little artists took their seats in the big gymnasium, Monte Vista Elementary principal Tom Little spoke up.

"Look alive," he said while pacing behind his young troops seated at their butcher paper-covered tables. "Pay attention, listen to directions … Oh, and don't get paint on your clothes."

Nineteen students were selected to attend the painting workshop Wednesday morning that was hosted by Canadian artist Lewis Lavoie. By today, the world-renowned painter will have hosted workshops and included about 270 students for a citywide art project from each of South Jordan's schools.

The city hired Lavoie more than a year ago to organize a project in celebration of the city's 150th anniversary.

"We were looking for a way to get the entire community involved in something," said Lori Edmunds, city events coordinator. "And he fit the part … exactly. He's like magic, this guy."

But it isn't the stroke of Lavoie's brush that necessarily makes him magic; it's his company's way of managing hundreds of artists at the same time in creating large murals with a mosaic of smaller individual paintings.

"We're the only ones in the world doing these type of murals," Lavoie's producer Phil Alain said.

Lavoie gave each of the artists, fourth through sixth grade, a square wooden pallet with a roughly painted design then told them to go for it.

"The mural deals with freedom," he said. "So paint something you enjoy doing. What gives you freedom?"

Lavoie and his crew will then fasten the nearly 300 painted tiles together to create a larger mystery image. City officials will unveil the 14-by-10-foot-high mosaic at Bingham High School as part of the city's yearlong sesquicentennial celebration.

But that's just the start of Lavoie's work with the city. The city actually hired him for about $70,000 to complete two mosaics: one the students are painting and one 300 artists from each U.S. state will contribute to.

For about the price of a 7 series BMW, Lavoie and his crew will round up and manage hundreds of painters across the country in creating a large 20-by-30-foot patriotic mural for the city to display — somewhere.

"We're not sure where it's going yet," Edmunds said. "That's still in the works."

Lavoie's Web site, muralmosaic.com, shows the mural's general design, a flag waving behind images of the Statue of Liberty and a bald eagle.

But that's the big picture. Up close, the individual paintings in the mural will reveal patriotic scenes from each state.

"That's what really make the United States so unbelievable to the rest of the world," Lavoie said.

E-MAIL: jhancock@desnews.com