Art adventure clearly a success

  • By Jennifer Kneuss
  • January 15, 2010
  • 637
                        
Things are looking a little different these days in the hallways of New Philadelphia’s Welty Middle School. Students are perched high atop lockers, sailing paper airplanes in front of the principal’s office, climbing glass showcases, hanging upside down in stairwells, and kicking soccer balls in the halls. One is even standing outdoors in the courtyard, peering in the window. And the school principal, Sally Stroup, completely approves. Discipline problems? No, this is the result of the collective creative genius of second year art teacher Kelly Mikula’s eighth-grade art students. These ‘students’ are merely cast sculptures of their flesh and blood creators, and they are made entirely from clear plastic packing tape. Mikula’s students were inspired by their study of street art in public places. “The students were doing drawing and self-portrait work, and this was a natural progression,” explained Mikula. “I said, let’s go big, and let everyone see what we’re doing!” Once the principal had approved their public installation plans, the 45 students got to work. “They were allowed to either mix and match body parts, and combine them, or wrap one person totally, as long as each person had a job and a responsibility. They took off with it. I let them choose their own groups of three. It was a lot about group work, too, and seeing how well they would work in a group, and assign things, and to see who would take a leadership role. So that was really fun,” exclaimed Mikula. “It was great to see how creative they could be. They could choose anywhere in the building that they wanted to place it, in any pose. It was very open-ended, and great to see how far they would push the envelope, too.” Students had to create the sculptures to fit the spaces they chose. A great deal of sketching and brainstorming had to go into each project. At the end of three weeks, numerous lunch hours and after school work, and at least 75 rolls of packaging tape, there were 15 completely transparent new ‘students’ in the halls. Fellow students walked in one morning, and were amazed to see the figures scattered throughout their school. “I didn’t know what they were at first, like where they came from,” commented seventh-grader Garrett Harstine. “I had to think about what they were, and then I realized they were from Mrs. Mikula’s class. I like them. They’re pretty cool.” Olyvia Tristano was also unsure initially. “The first time I saw them, they freaked me out, because I didn’t know what they were,” she commented. “They’re really cool, though. I want to do one!” “They make me laugh when I see them, because they look cool,” said Megan Luff. “The one in the window by the library is really funny, because it’s holding a book. I like that one. Our hallways are a lot more interesting now.” The art students involved in the project found that the experience was about much more than simply creating a piece of art. “I learned that it’s sometimes hard to work with the same group of people for a longer length of time. There were different opinions. There were some arguments over stuff, but for the most part, it was really fun to do. I liked this project. I’ve never done life sculptures like this before,” said Sara Litty, who helped make a sculpture that now greets students entering the building. Litty admitted that she was intimidated by the project at first. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out, but it turned out pretty well.” Mikula is very pleased with the outcome of the project. “It’s difficult when you’re working in a group, and when you’re working one-on-one, on top of the other. They are wrapping each other; they’re working very closely together, too. So there were a lot of components to this project that I was nervous about,” said Mikula. “But this is an amazing group of eighth-graders, and they did a great job. This is by far the most interesting project we have ever done. The students are really excited about it.” The art projects will be on display at the middle school for the next several months.


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