Sunday, May 17, 2009

Final Touches

The students at Woods are close to finishing up the sculptures. Monday should be final touches and then some drying before we load them in the kiln. Here is a coyote pretty much finished up

An ostritch
Amanda's Panda
and a soon to be finished beaver from Owen. I'll be sad to see this class finishing up. I have had so much fun, this is one of the best projects I've worked on. I wish there were more clay opportunities available in our community for high school kids but I'm afraid they are so busy with school and sports and jobs, they probably don't have time for things like sculpting animals, too bad. I think that is why this residency is so great. I can bring the clay to a captive audience. We should always be trying to cultivate art appreciation in our young people, even it they don't become artists, they will be the ones buying our art one day!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm totally with you on that... i don't think society understands the importance of using hands and learning to actually see, these kids are very good.

cindy shake said...

Very cool project. I love the originality and the shapes, especially the Walrus! Anytime we can get kids working with their hands, the better. Sadly, "time" is becoming such a precious commodity...

Linda Starr said...

Tracey that's a good point about cultivating art appreciation in young people; I love the fact that with this project each student works individually but then all the parts become one.

Peter said...

That is brilliant Tracey, a really worth while project. I guess that very few children these days get to use their imagination in the way that happens when when making animals and other things from clay. A great thing for minds and hands.

Tracey Broome said...

This is definitely one of my favorite projects. Several students paired up and made an animal together which has been interesting. I wouldn't have thought that would work but it has worked very well. The walrus, panda, raccoon and ostrich have all bee made by two people. I threw some cylinders this weekend which the elementary kids will decorate so that they have some ownership of the project also. After all it will be on the playground.