Hundreds of South Chicago schoolchildren participated in this “sky art” project depicting President-elect Barack Obama.

What do you get when you mix 800 South Chicago school children with a former Kansas photographer and artist?

A very big “sky art” rendering of President-elect Barack Obama in a snow-covered field.

On Jan. 8 conceptual artist Daniel Dancer organized the youths, dressed in black, white and red, into “human drops of paint” to form the 12,000-square-foot image of Obama. But it was an image that could only be made out by looking down from above.

“They were so excited. It was unbelievable the excitement they had for this,” Dancer said of the kindergarten through eighth grade students in one of Chicago’s roughest neighborhoods.

Dancer, who made a name for himself as an environmental photographer in Kansas before moving to Oregon, talked about the Obama art project recently by phone. He came up with the idea after seeing the Shepard Fairey “Hope” poster of Obama.

But Dancer wanted his depiction to have Obama smiling. So he came up with a three-tone picture of Obama and e-mailed it and his idea to all school principals in Illinois. Only one – Vaida Williams of Chicago’s Alex Haley Academy – responded. The school is only 10 minutes from Obama’s home, Dancer said.

The students helped form Obama’s hair, shirt and suit. Students from another school formed a border around the art work. Also used were recycled cans which formed the worked “Yes” beneath Obama.

Dancer then photographed and recorded a video of the event from a crane. He and the students also had to battle a snow storm and frigid temperatures leading up to the final day of the final-day project. Parents also helped.

“Fortunately we woke up and the sun was shinning. We all worked furiously and got it done,” Dancer said.

Dancer has done several sky art projects in collaboration with schools around the country. His work, including Obama, can be found on his Web site, www.artforthesky.com.

Dancer, who earned a master’s in psychology at Kansas University, worked on several projects with Kansas crop artist Stan Herd, of Lawrence. He was a freelance photographer for “Kansas!” magazine and some of his environmental photos are in the book “The Four Seasons of Kansas.”

“Dan is a very talented guy,” said Herd, who last year used rock in a field near Dallas to make his own sky portrait of Obama.

Dancer said he wants to return to Kansas to work on more projects.

“I’d love to come back. I’d like to do a couple more with schools in the Lawrence area,” he said.