Post by title1parent on Sept 26, 2008 5:15:49 GMT -5
Click on the link and see the visual. It is pretty cool.
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1186273,6_1_NA26_NEUQUAART_S1.article
Inflatable art challenges students' perceptions
Neuqua class works on different type of sculpture
September 26, 2008
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
It looked Thursday morning like Wonder Woman had made in impromptu appearance in Heidi Parkes' art classroom at the Neuqua Valley High School Gold Campus. But that was no Invisible Jetplace Parkes' students were climbing around in.
Over the past week, her classes have been making inflatable sculptures, and, when they met Thursday, her fifth period students started putting the finishing touches on Mission V, an 24-foot-tall inflatable rocket ship made from plastic drop cloths and clear packing tape.
"We thought it would be cool because it can fly and stuff, and it's an inflatable" said Dan Brinker, whose idea it was to make an inflatable rocket. Students in Parkes' other classes are creating an inflatable octopus, television and flying pig. Each of the sculptures take up most, if not all, of the classroom when they're inflated.
"I didn't expect it to be this big," Brinker said of the class project. "When it is all blown up, it is huge."
The students will display these sculptures during lunch Wednesday as part of the school's homecoming festivities.
This is the fourth year Parkes has done the inflatable sculpture class project, which ties in with the Red Ball Project, an a public art project created by NYC-based sculptor Kurt Perschke that coincidentally wrapped up its tour Thursday in Chicago. During his tours, Perschke simply situates his 15-foot inflatable red ball in, on and around some of most notable landmarks of the city he is in. While in Chicago, he rolled his ball to such destinations as Millennium Park, the Field Museum and the Federal Plaza, just to name a few.
Like the site of a giant red ball wedged between the columns at the Field Museum, Parkes said this project proves to be a memorable one for her students. Kids who left Neuqua's Gold Campus two and three years ago will return to see the sculptures next week, and, she said, they'll look at the giant inflatable octopus or the flying pig and remember their inflatable sculptures - the Sears Tower or a gum ball machine.
And, said Parkes, they'll of course say, "Ours was better."
But, more importantly than any of that, said Parkes, is that the inflatable sculptures expand their artistic horizons.
"One of the reasons I love doing this is because they think art is painting and ceramics," Parkes said of her young students. "The world of art is so much bigger. So doing inflatable sculptures really stretches their minds to make them think way beyond what they thought art was before they got to high school."
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1186273,6_1_NA26_NEUQUAART_S1.article
Inflatable art challenges students' perceptions
Neuqua class works on different type of sculpture
September 26, 2008
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
It looked Thursday morning like Wonder Woman had made in impromptu appearance in Heidi Parkes' art classroom at the Neuqua Valley High School Gold Campus. But that was no Invisible Jetplace Parkes' students were climbing around in.
Over the past week, her classes have been making inflatable sculptures, and, when they met Thursday, her fifth period students started putting the finishing touches on Mission V, an 24-foot-tall inflatable rocket ship made from plastic drop cloths and clear packing tape.
"We thought it would be cool because it can fly and stuff, and it's an inflatable" said Dan Brinker, whose idea it was to make an inflatable rocket. Students in Parkes' other classes are creating an inflatable octopus, television and flying pig. Each of the sculptures take up most, if not all, of the classroom when they're inflated.
"I didn't expect it to be this big," Brinker said of the class project. "When it is all blown up, it is huge."
The students will display these sculptures during lunch Wednesday as part of the school's homecoming festivities.
This is the fourth year Parkes has done the inflatable sculpture class project, which ties in with the Red Ball Project, an a public art project created by NYC-based sculptor Kurt Perschke that coincidentally wrapped up its tour Thursday in Chicago. During his tours, Perschke simply situates his 15-foot inflatable red ball in, on and around some of most notable landmarks of the city he is in. While in Chicago, he rolled his ball to such destinations as Millennium Park, the Field Museum and the Federal Plaza, just to name a few.
Like the site of a giant red ball wedged between the columns at the Field Museum, Parkes said this project proves to be a memorable one for her students. Kids who left Neuqua's Gold Campus two and three years ago will return to see the sculptures next week, and, she said, they'll look at the giant inflatable octopus or the flying pig and remember their inflatable sculptures - the Sears Tower or a gum ball machine.
And, said Parkes, they'll of course say, "Ours was better."
But, more importantly than any of that, said Parkes, is that the inflatable sculptures expand their artistic horizons.
"One of the reasons I love doing this is because they think art is painting and ceramics," Parkes said of her young students. "The world of art is so much bigger. So doing inflatable sculptures really stretches their minds to make them think way beyond what they thought art was before they got to high school."