Art Studio Class Notes

In addition to students diving into clay, drawing, painting and sculpture, we have started our big school-wide collaborative project! Inspired by the Spanish designer and architect, Antoni Gaudi, we have been studying the intersection of sculpture, architecture and the natural world. Students began by looking at structures found in nature - beehives, ant hills, termite mounds, bird nests and beaver dams, among many others. We then looked at corresponding human made architecture inspired by some of those natural structures – buildings like the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Oculus in New York City and the Beijing National Stadium, by designers and architects such as Gaudi, Buckminster Fuller, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava. 

We have now begun constructing our own sculptural structure which will have 6-10 large sections that will come together to form one large structure and will be installed at the Parrish Art Museum in March. The students have considered and discussed various potential challenges in building such a sculptural structure, such as size, weight, proportion, gravity, balance, aesthetics, and what materials will be most appropriate to meet these challenges. We are off to an exciting start! — Sabra Elliot & Perry Burns, 10/15/2024