From Justin Kramer:

The students were required to respond to the exhibition "Cinderella's Revenge" by generating a work that could be exhibited alongside the works shown in the exhibition. They were encouraged to explore a whimsical interpretation of a shoe. We discussed interpretations of what could constitute as a shoe - these include thongs, flippers, skates, the word shoe, etc. Some of the students ended up using the word shoe and painting it in graffiti style on a sheet of paper. I didn't document many of the 2D versions - the 3D ones were far more creative.

Students were encouraged to use the media of their own choosing, this included mixed media, collage, paper mache', drawing, painting, construction and carving (clay). They brainstormed possible construction methods and negotiated for media via design plans.

The work sent to you were from a year 9 class. In retrospect I feel that I might have had more surreal interpretations from an older group. Technically they handled the media very well but on the whole they struggled with the student-directed activity and were quite needy. This isn't the case with older students. I will be doing the art cars with some of the same students next year and with this previous experience they should be a lot more confident in being creative rather than being conservative or stereotypical.

The brief was very simple and allowed the students to be very creativity. They enjoyed this unit - on the whole the boys were the most successful with it - something which I didn't predict.

Examples from the exhibition "Cinderella's revenge" were used to discuss the variety of possibilities and were used to encourage students to be adventurous.

Student work on this page is by students at , Dakabin State High School, Queensland, Australia. Justin now teaches at North Lakes State College.

See Ceramic Shoes Lesson Plan