Creative Endeavors Art Club donates special piece to Hononegah High School

By Marianne Mueller

Reporter

ROCKTON – Walls of Hononegah High School recently became brighter and more intriguing. Students from the Creative Endeavors Club produced a detailed wall sculpture which is a dimensional sound wave of part of the school song. Measuring out at 16 feet long the sculpture begins and ends with the school colors and consists of a neutral ribbon running through it which represents the student body.

Following deliberation of different project ideas the wall sculpture offered a true chance to incorporate all levels of artistic talent as new skills were also learned and developed.

Students proceeded in collecting materials needed. They placed canisters in parts of the school for the donation of bottle caps. To keep expenses low reclaimed wood from palettes that the school’s copy paper comes in and numerous bottle caps were used to make the sculpture.

“We taught the kids how to pull the palettes apart and they got their hands dirty. They got their hands clean by cleaning the bottle caps,” said Art teacher VanGalder. “The idea of using the bottle caps was inspired by bottle cap art.

Students took boards and sawed them to specific lengths to a create variety of them, painted them, and numbered them to achieve accurate length to keep the pattern pure. Additionally students learned to drill. All of the paint used on the sculpture was donated.

“When we were in the design process we really wanted to incorporate something to connect the project back to Hononegah,” shared Van Galder.

The overall process took two years from start to finish. Faculty, students, parents, the nurse’s office and the Envriomental Club all jumped into action by donating bottle caps and became involved in a variety of ways.

Hononegah High School Band Director, Jerimiah Kramper printed off the sound wave with technology that he had available. Students and art teachers looked for an area that had varities of lengths to assure that the sound waves would be really dramatic.

“Like animation 30 seconds takes six months to create,” said VanGalder. “We started working with a color wheel which allows the colors in the sculpture to start with purple and to end with gold.”

“This whole project was purely student driven and I am so impressed that they took the initiative to move forward. They had the grit and determination in sticking to things to finish this very challenging project. It was phenomenal,” lauds VanGalder.

In a culmination of years of hard work the completed sculpture was presented to the school on May 26. Led by art teachers Arra VanGalder and Jenny Decker a full team of students created a unique piece of artwork that now hangs at the north entrance of Hononegah High School in honor of the school’s spirit!