For many years, students at Wichita High School South in Wichita,
Kansas have created a display for the holiday season based on a famous
work of art. Students in Drawing and Painting and Special Art Productions
have painted an 8' x 12' triptych which stands behind our holiday tree.
 
Students must use problem solving
to decide how to make the selected artwork fit the holiday season. Sometimes
their ideas are wild! In December 1995 our students based their exhibit
on Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory". Students in Introduction to
Art had large papier mache ants on the tree and climbing from a picnic
basket through the snow. The tree also was decorated with dripping clocks
sewn from canvas and painted with acrylics. Students learned about Surrealism.
We hope we've made this artwork memorable to our students and to our viewers.
We also hope its surrealistic enough that Dali himself would have approved!
Click on the image at left for the full size picture.
Our exhibit was a part of Holiday
at the Museum in conjunction with the Wichita Art Museum where an annual
exhibit is held with individual displays from schools, businesses, and
individuals; several thousand people see this exhibit, so we're delighted
to be a part of the merriment!
Students at Wichita High School South
in Drawing and Painting, and Special Art Productions began the year in
'94 by reading an article in the Wichita Eagle newspaper on the subject
of tagging -when is/isn't it art? We wrote letters to our newspaper about
our opinions and they published what our students wrote. Many students
were very surprised because they had never seen any of their writing in
publication before!
I introduced Keith Haring to the students to tie into the tagging idea.
Students then had to base their Holiday Exhibit on Haring's work. They
enlarged what originally was a tag of Harings on the the 8' x 12' triptych.
They put a border of Haring's Radiant Baby. Introduction to Art students
created papier mache Radiant Babies and red felt barking dogs; these were
placed on the tree. In front of the tree we made Haring angels from foam
core board and a large barking dog. A large felt Radiant Baby was autographed
by the students and placed in the snow in front of the tree. Click
on the image at right for the full size picture.
Later students spotted Haring's work
when Honda used it in their ads for their van. (Art in the Work Place!)
They were surprised, since they had been unfamiliar with it prior to our
exhibit. Students also learned how famous artworks are adapted into all
kinds of other visuals; for instance, the Haring exhibit would have been
great as a display for a department store.
We have also created holiday exhibits
based on Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" with papier mache stars and
moons, a work based on Edward Hicks' "Peaceable Kingdom" great papier mache
lions and sheep, and a display based on Rousseau's "The Jungle". We called
this one "Jungle Bells" . We had great parrots on the tree, a large papier
mache elephant on the floor and other goodies. The students at South have
come to look forward to our holiday fun. We exhibit our work in the school
library after it is shown at the Wichita Art Museum.
Kathleen McCrea
Wichita High School South
Wichita, Kansas |
