Sculptures grasp school’s attention

Inspiration to create something with a powerful message can come from all different angles. Through sculpting, studentshave been able to share their messages through strange and slightly creepy human-like figures.

Sculpting teacher Andrew McCormick’s main goal is to get people to appreciate contemporary art. As he had put it, “People need to know that not all great artists are old dead guys.” Mark Jemkems is one of these contemporary artists that made McCormick want to teach his students. He is known for his random human sculptures placed in peculiar places.

By using actual dimensions of the student’s own bodies, McCormick’s proteges used plastic wrap to create their masterpieces. By wrapping the wrap around a certain body part and taping it with clear tape, they were able to create realistic body sizes. Then, proceeding to cut off the piece with scissors and taping it back together, the students were able to slowly and gradually put together their person.

Student artist Marissa Nunez said, “It is really time consuming, but in the end it’s pretty sweet and awesome. We are really excited to see it come all together.” She said she hopes the product will be worth it. “It is really satisfying to see how this body can come together from just using plastic.

After the students have finished their projects, they will be placing them around the school. A group has already set theirs up in the guidance hallway. Screams were heard up and down the hallway when this girl with pigtails and sweats was discovered hanging from the duct work upside down, fooling many people that she was a real human.

“I think that the students responded really well to this project. From my vantage point I think they definitely did, and getting their reactions was really good. It wasn’t as time consuming as I thought and this project was a good follow up to our next project, which will be full body abstract structures using plaster,” McCormick said.

Not only did this project get them ready for the coming project, it gave them the opportunity to indulge in really freaking people out. Like the sculpture from last year that used to hang up in the cafeteria and is currently sitting on top of the pop machines, these current sculptures will be in crazy places.

“All of the sculptures have a destination, but we want to keep them hidden so people will have the full effect of discovering them scattered around,” McCormick said.

Even if the final product is amazing, there are always challenges along the way. “I am satisfied with the results, but the head was a little tricky. Cutting it was a little difficult, and we just ended up using Styrofoam after the failed attempts. Also, making the sculptures structurally what they wanted them to look like was hard, but it was a good challenge,” McCormick
said.

Nunez said making her sculpture her sculpture was challenging, but worth it. “There was a lot of hard things. Getting the right angles for the body parts, getting
the correct positions. and taping the body parts too tight was also an issue we had to deal with.”