Hollidaysburg Residency Spring 2011

My residency in Hollidaysburg at two schools is going well.  The art teacher Ms. Halbritter had loads of clay, tools, two gorgeous Skutt kilns, glazes and eager students!  What more could an artist in residence ask for at this point?  I am working with K-6 and each school also has a core group of students.  All the students have had a chance to dabble in clay.  2-6th graders each made two small hand formed tile pieces, one to keep and one for the final mosaics.  The core groups worked in teams and created the central tiles that are larger.  Each of these tiles represents a word of their choice.

In the meantime, we have fired about 1100 pieces single fire, worked on sanding the mosaice boards, painted the boards and will commence to make about a dozen smaller mosaic pieces for each school.  I have also contributed recycled glass and glass beads to add to the works.  We keep talking about the past Earth Day motto of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

 
Also present for one of my residency days was artist and sculpture Michael Allison an installation artist from the area.  All of us worked with the first grade students to make fiber glass tiles that will be included in the final huge trees that will be installed for a playground at the school.  The entire project is for a student named Zach who passed away who had debilitating health.  I am hoping to volunteer some of my time this summer to go back to the area to help with this huge installation.