Art meets nature, and that's a wrap

Taking a cue from "The Gates - Central Park," students create an eye-opening, enlightening project.

By MICHELE MILLER
Published May 4, 2005

TRINITY - It took weeks to complete the 900 feet of brightly colored artwork, but in the end the students at Trinity Elementary School pulled it off and art teacher Anne Bowen was heaving a sigh of relief.

"I was so afraid it was going to rain," said Bowen as students paraded their collective masterpiece out to Building 4 last week to begin hanging it for the school's annual art festival. "I'm happy about the good weather."

"Trinity Wrapped" was the title of the school project, which encircled an entire building with student-drawn pictures of Florida's endangered species.

To the naked eye the colorful exhibition was most definitely an eye pleaser. But through a pair of cardboard 3-D glasses, the images of Florida panthers, manatees and Schaus swallowtail butterflies seemed to jump out, creating a remarkable effect.

Students combined the techniques of American quilt design with color theory rules to create the three-dimensional drawings they colored on 4-inch by 9-inch squares and then taped lengthwise together.

In 3-D, warm colors - red, orange and yellow - advance while cool colors such as violet, blue and black recede, Bowen explained. "Some color combinations work immediately. Some you have to look at for a while," she said.

Students like 10-year-old Dominick Dithmer took great pains to create their pictures. Dominick used multicolored dots for the intricate background on his American alligator picture. "I like to put a lot of color into my art," he said. "It took like two weeks."

As undertakings go, some might note that this was a nod to the work of world-renowned artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who have wrapped walkways, trees and Central Park. "The Gates - Central Park, New York 1979-2005" decorated 23 miles of the park's walkways with 7,500 saffron-colored fabric panels.

In 1983 the artists created "Surrounded Islands," surrounding 11 islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with 6.5-million square feet of pink fabric covering the surface of the water, extending 200 feet from each island into the bay.

"The Gates" had been in the news, creating some inspiration for Bowen, who wanted to take on a community project that would excite the kids.

"It's socially important," Bowen said of her school's exhibit. "Trinity is in an area where there's tremendous development, and I thought the kids would be interested in that."

Indeed, while drawing, students learned much about Florida's endangered species. Emily Long, 11, chose the ivory-billed woodpecker as her subject. "I thought it was the most interesting," she said of the bird that grows to be about 20 inches. "It's very long; it's like half of me."

(A front-page story in the April 29 St. Petersburg Times reported a recent sighting in Arkansas of the bird long thought extinct.)

The school purchased 500 pairs of 3-D glasses to sell during the festival. Proceeds would be split between the Audubon Society and the school's art department, Bowen said.

"Cool" seemed to be the consensus from students, including fifth-grader Brooke Piesco, who helped to make a "Save the Animals" sign to hang above the exhibit.

Brianna Magyar, whose contribution was a Florida panther, was among those who lingered to check out the work of others after helping hang their classroom's contribution on the beige wall.

As art projects go, 9-year-old Brianna said, "This one was a lot of fun."

[Last modified May 4, 2005, 00:58:13]