One of the expectations of the Art Portfolio class is for the students to contribute to a collaborative piece together as a studio community of artists. My students used this opportunity to submit a sculpture to the 2023 Art Attack festival in partnership with a local business, Customs Imports, in downtown New Buffalo. Art Attack is a festival of the arts showcasing the visual arts, music, fashion, culinary arts, literary arts, and architecture with exhibitions and activities throughout Harbor County held this Friday, April 28th- Sunday April 30th. https://michiganartattack.com/event-list/
As part of the Art Attack festival, our class was invited to participate in Customs Imports 2nd Annual Pallet Art Competition. It all started with just a wooden pallet and a group of creative thinkers brainstorming a concept!
The students decided on casting their hands from plaster strips and arranging them on the wooden pallet. The idea was that the hands would extend out from the pallet like pops of color from the white background as if a paint bucket were pouring a blend of colors into the painted hands. Each person would customize their hand inspired by an art history movement or artist style to represent the NBHS Art Department.
Students followed a design thinking process:
(Define, Research/Plan, Create, Critique, Share)
The students worked in teams to mold their own hands out of plaster.
Each hand was designed as a recreated style of an art history reference.
The wooden pallet had to be sanded and painted along with an epoxy coat sprayed on the painted hands.
We held team meetings to critique the artwork and problem solve each step of the project.
Attaching the hands took a little trial and error by adding plaster strips from the end of the hands to the flat surface so that they could connect like a hinge.
We got some advice from the Maintenance Department who were kind enough to lend us a drill to securely install the hands.
The students wanted to cover the screws and blend the transitions so they layered each edge with plaster strips to the wooden pallet.
The NBHS Art Department sculpture will be featured as part of the pallet contest at Art Attack this weekend.
Stroll down Whittaker Street in downtown New Buffalo until you come to the corner of Nancy's and Customs Imports to vote on all the creative pallet pieces made by local students and Harbor County community members!
Be cool!!