Wednesday, September 5, 2007
SELF-PORTRAITS IN CLAY
Collegiate students portray their seasonal fun
By
Martha Elson
melson@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Urooj Nasim's clay art tile in a colorful new
mural at Louisville Collegiate
School shows the 9-year-old riding on a black horse. "If I could, I would do
that every spring," said Urooj, who used to take riding lessons.
The main idea behind the mural was to give students a chance to depict themselves engaged in their favorite seasonal activities.
With Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" concertos playing in the background, the 7-foot-wide "Four Seasons" mural was unveiled last week at the school, 2427 Glenmary Ave., in the Cherokee Triangle.
The tiles were crafted by 38 youngsters and ceramic artist Wayne Ferguson.
The mural also turned out to be a tribute to what could be a passing environmental era.
"This might have more significance than you think," Ferguson told the students, teachers and staff assembled for the event in a third-floor commons area of the Lower School, where the mural was mounted on the wall. "I can remember when we had four distinct seasons." Ten years from now, "We'll see."
Student Kevin Murphy's tile shows him diving into a swimming pool, and Sarah Hall's shows just her boots and a frog at a creek. Her aunt has a farm, and "we always catch frogs at the creek," Sarah said.
The students, who were in art teacher Christina Clifford's class, participated in a drawing to determine which season they would illustrate, then sketched their ideas on paper.
They used a pointed tool to draw the images in clay and the three-dimensional pictures were built up using more clay. The tiles were fired in a kiln.
Clifford called it "a wonderful work of art" that gave them a chance to work with a professional artist.
They worked on the mural last year, when they were third-graders, after the school commissioned Ferguson, 60, to lead the project. He has a studio he calls "Wayne on Payne" at Payne Street and Clifton Avenue in Clifton, and a Web site, www.waynefergusonceramics.com.
Ferguson has two tiles in the mural -- one showing himself fishing and the other with a snowman. He also has worked on projects at other schools, including Hawthorne and Maupin elementaries, and at Blackacre Nature Preserve, the Louisville Visual Art Association and other sites in the state.
After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he attended the University of Kentucky. He was honored for his contributions to teaching and preserving craft traditions with the 2006 Rude Osolnik Award, presented by the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft in Louisville. It's named for a nationally acclaimed wood turner from Berea.
At the Collegiate unveiling, students read poems about the four seasons, and mural participant Elizabeth Orr read a description she wrote about the project, calling it "an awesome experience." Her tile shows her snowboarding in winter.
"I do not snowboard," she said. "But it was too hard to make skis." She does ski, saying her family has gone to upstate New York and Paoli Peaks in Southern Indiana.
Alex Oldham showed herself floating on a raft in a pool holding a cup of lemonade. "It could be any pool," she said.
Alana Levitch's tile showed green and blue polka-dotted rain boots on the pavement in a spring rain. "I like hopping in the puddles," she said.
Brenna Frigo is wearing a top with a pink heart and holding a pink umbrella in summer in her tile picture. "I just really like playing outside," she said.
Reporter Martha Elson can be reached at (502) 582-7061.