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Turtle love
By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- It looked easy enough on paper. The young artists had a design and a color scheme. They had gallons of paint, an arsenal of brushes and three months to complete their project before the Dec. 1 deadline. But then they saw the turtle -- all 6 feet of it. Face to face with the 50-pound fiberglass loggerhead that came to live in their classroom, they began to wonder whether three years of art training had prepared them for the challenge. Still, the five seniors from the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High did a "complete happy dance" when they found out they would be participating in the Clearwater Marine Aquarium's Tampa Bay Tour of Turtles. They were eager to put their artistic stamp on this particular turtle, one of 99 turtles in the public art project designed to raise awareness of the threatened loggerhead. They also were happy to be helping the Children's Dream Fund, the charity that provided the turtle and would benefit when the painted replica is auctioned. "It got pretty elaborate," visual arts teacher Joyce Walker said of their proposal, which combined the vibrating, rhythmic patterns of optical art with the students' own color combinations. Not simply wanting to "dress up a turtle," she said they dipped into their art history background and researched artists who used color and line to create visual effects. Cynthia Norwood, 18, admitted that she and her classmates, who have been friends since ninth grade, "tend to get a little overly ambitious sometimes." When they realized what they had gotten themselves into, they developed a love-hate relationship with the turtle that continued for the duration of the project. Their first challenge was transferring a small, two-dimensional design to a large, three-dimensional surface. Next, they had to get used to painting on fiberglass and dealing with colors that dried to unexpected shades. They also had to learn to work collaboratively.
Arranging schedules also was problematic. The students had classwork in other subjects, and several of them had part-time jobs. Rhiannon Wistrand, 18, found it difficult to juggle homework assignments, and had to spend part of her winter break catching up. The students spent so much time with the turtle -- about two hours after school almost every day -- that they started saying "hi" to it when they came into the studio. They also gave it a name: Frances Riley. The surname was an homage to one of their references, British abstract painter Bridget Riley. They chose Frances, Norwood said, "because it can be both a girl's name and a boy's name, and because we just liked the way it sounded." There were a few tense moments, Gabby Roberts, 18, said. One came when the turtle's head grazed the steel beams of the studio's ceiling as the students were lifting the sculpture up on a table to paint the base. They camouflaged the minor damage with paint and kept working. As their deadline approached, the students started "getting paranoid," Roberts' twin sister, Breanne, said. Determined to adapt classmate Curt DelPrincipe's undulating, zebra-stripe pattern to the turtle's beak, the students painted and repainted the curved area. They were grateful, Roberts said, when visual arts teacher Gary Miller drafted freshman Marcus Freeman and juniors Michelle John and Claire Schrider to help them. The students completed the project on time, and Frances Riley was installed at BayWalk in December. The chance to display their work in a public space was one of the reasons PCCA department chairman Alan Johnson said yes when the Children's Dream Fund approached him in September and asked whether the visual arts students would be interested in the project. "It's really important for us as a school to be in the public eye," he said. "We thought this was an excellent opportunity for the school itself and the students involved to get their work outside of the classroom, outside the galleries we have on campus." But producing a public art piece is risky, Johnson said. "When you commit to something like that, there's a certain amount of pressure. You've got to stress with the kids that this is going out for everyone to see. You've got to do your best work." Johnson and the other faculty members, who took turns staying after school with the students, also stressed that they do the work themselves. "We were very careful not to allow this to become something the faculty designed and then directed the students to do. We wanted it to be theirs," he said. Visiting the turtle shortly after it was moved to BayWalk, Gabby and Breanne Roberts had an unexpected reaction. "We knew it was going to be there, but it was still a shock actually seeing it," Gabby said. "We were like, "Wow, we did that.' " The PCCA turtle will remain at BayWalk until mid April when it will travel to the Harborview Center in Clearwater for a family reunion with the other loggerheads. When it is auctioned May 18, 60 percent of the proceeds will go to the Children's Dream Fund and 25 percent will go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. The auctioneer will collect the remaining 15 percent. Asked how much they think their turtle will fetch, the PCCA students said they have no idea. Asked how much they think their turtle is worth, they agreed Frances Riley is priceless.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
