The five kids in the middle school sculpture and ceramics workshop were engaged and self-motivated. The smaller class size allowed us to problem-solve and create on an individual level. I think that this is an important opportunity for young artists in the valley. The participants have amazing skills and need to know what they can do with them with a bit of direction.
Student-centered development allows participants to observe what they can accomplish with their own ideas and skills. Zootown Art presents them with an artistic problem to solve, a media, and some inspiration and ideas. Then the students simply go for it! What emerges is an active studio atmosphere where the students can feed off one another and have personal artistic experiences with other artists their age.
Alice Amundson
Freshman, Hellgate High School
I started this class only knowing that I would be working on sculpture. I didn't know what mediums we would be using or what kinds of sculpture we could be making. As soon as everyone was at the tables, we found that for our first project we would be using papier-mache. I had recently papier-mached vases and I was very excited to do some more papier-mache. Even though I had done papier-mache many times before I still learned some new techniques from our instructor Sara. Instead of just starting off with newspaper and papier-mache pulp we molded paper around glass vases or paper bowls. After we were done we would take the vases and bowl out. There wasn't just colored paper to use there was also fabric, yarn and textural papers to use.
After the papier-mache vessels we started on clay sculptures. We could do anything we wanted with this clay. I decided to make a pot. One of the things I learned that I hadn't known before was that it's better to push clay to form what you want than to pull it. For these sculptures we used a kind of red clay that hardened on its own so we didn't have to fire the clay in a kiln.
On the second day we went out and about to look at Splash Kitchen and Bath and the Dana Gallery. Before we did that we went to the Mountain Line transfer station to look at a sculpture by Tom Rippon called “Proper Shoppers.” I liked it because it was a comical sculpture. At Splash there was some tiles that were made by David Reagan. The tiles that I liked were of waves. His style had a liquid style that made the tile look like water. This inspired me to make my mosaic waves.
On the third day we mostly worked on our mosaics. For the wave I found blue, purple and green tiles. I arranged them to curve so you got the feel of waves. When we made the grout I put blue in it. The blue of the grout changed the look of the color on some of the tile pieces. There was one tile that looked gray-blue and next to the grout it looked lavender. I like Zootown Art because the students get to decide what they want to do. I like having that freedom.
ABOVE LEFT: Ashley Rezvani, RIGHT: Sydney Grimsley-Kattine
Photo by LYNN SCHWANKE/Missoulian
Sydney Grimsely-Kattine
Grade 6, Target Range School
On Tuesday we toured downtown Missoula's art galleries. We visited the Dana Gallery, where we saw sculptures of sprinter's legs. These were painted by high-schoolers and regional artists. Unfortunately some of them were broken, however they were used to mark every mile in the Missoula marathon. Another interesting place we went to on our tour was Splash Kitchen and Bath. They had sculptures and paintings that were all very interesting. It makes you really appreciate the efforts of the artists.
The projects we did were all fun and different in their own way, but we also had a selection of ideas to choose from in the different media we used. So we had freedom in that way, which was nice.
Some of the things we could make were textile vessels, papier-mache vases, mosaics, tile paintings and clay sculptures. Projects with different media were “grouped” together so when we were finished with one creation we could start on something in a new media. The things that I made included papier-mache vase, clay sculptures and a mosaic. They were all fun and unique in their own way.
My favorite to make was the papier-mache vase, because I haven't done a papier-mache project for a long time and enjoyed it. Also I liked the clay sculpture because I love working with clay. The only two projects I had an inspiration for was a coral reef which I got my inspiration from scuba diving for my first time in Honduras. The other inspiration was for my mosaic. I saw a picture similar to it in the Dawn of a Stream, but it also reminded me of a creek I'd played in when I was younger in Lolo. I combined both together to make my mosaic.
Ashley Rezvani<>br
WOW! I already knew art was fun, but this is more fun than I've ever had with art! I did lots of things - a tile mosaic, a paper vessel, a push pot, painting tiles - but what I really enjoyed was doing art with other kids my age. Everyone was very nice and friendly, especially Sara. Zootown Arts is a really fun project and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys doing art.
I was first going to mosaic a tree, but I thought of David Reagan's wave and frog tiles. I thought it would be cool to do an animal and an underwater animal. I ended up doing a red fish! I also molded a paper vessel from a glass jar and it ended up looking great! It was fun getting my hands slimy with papier-mache pulp. On the push pot I put one of my favorite sayings, “Nobody is perfect, I am nobody, so that means I'm perfect.” Painting the tiles was my favorite thing. On them I put a sleeping moon above the Earth looking up into a tree and a smiling sun. Everything was really fun and great. I'd do it next year if I could.
LEFT: Hannah Wolf, RIGHT: Dan Cook
Photo by LYNN SCHWANKE/Missoulian
Hannah Wolf
Grade 8, Washington Middle School
The art camp was so much fun! We had so much flexibility to create our own projects. The art camp was always making me really observe scenery and making me aware of little things that might inspire me to show through my artwork. At this camp we made fabric vessels by papier-mache-ing over vases and adding our own flair. We got to make pottery and think of ways to use tiles for things like mosaics and coasters. This camp was really cool in the way that you could come up with your own ideas and use all the awesome art supplies.
My favorite project was painting the tiles and making a clay piggy bank. I didn't really realize until this camp how much fun these art projects were because you don't have to use exact directions or have to make the projects perfect in order for them to look good. You just had to use creativity and go for it. We went to the Dana Art Gallery where I learned a lot about different materials, styles, appearances and artists (my new favorite - Carol Speilman). I had a blast during this camp; it was something fun to look forward to.
Dan Cook
Grade 7, Washington Middle School
I really liked doing all of the art and working with everyone and seeing what sort of styles for painting and sculpture they used.
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