Pit Firing 2009

Here's a picture of students digging out the pit. We went on a fieldtrip to Dawn Soltysiak's studio and farm near South Haven, Michigan. She showed us how to do smoke and pit firings of the ceramic pieces we made in class. Pit firing is the most ancient form of turning clay into ceramic. It involves burying the pieces below ground and covering them with combustible materials and making a bonfire. There is no glaze used on the pieces, just natural materials like banana peels, straw, wood, and we even added dog food to get some vitamins and minerals to color the work. It rained all weekend, so it was a soggy adventure, but really, really fun.

Blindfolded at the Wheel

Here's a picture of the students today, trying to center & pull a cylinder without looking...

Karla's Window

Karla DePina was honored last week by the College Board with an announcement that the sculpture above will be part of a national traveling exhibit of senior work. 30 pieces were chosen among the nation's 35,000 students who submitted portfolios for review. The exhibit will travel to Princeton, NJ, Lake Wales FL, Dallas, TX, Baltimore, MD, and it will also be in Chicago at Gallery 37 in November. Hope you can be there. Now, after her second national award this year for an architectural sculpture, Karla has decided that architecture is indeed her calling. She plans to pursue architecture in college. I hope to live in one of her creative dwellings some day!

Oppenheimer Grant Funds Tea Party

Former teacher and current arts & education patron, Ted Oppenheimer and Foundation, generously granted our art department the funding to study and celebrate the history and art of tea and the teapot. We constructed panels for a mosaic mural, while each student created a teapot and cups from which we sampled teas from around the world. Students performed live music, baroque to contemporary, while we ate food from hand-made serving dishes and sipped teas. Thank you to the Oppenheimers for their amazing generosity and support to make school a creative and fun place.

Wood-Firing 2009

On the day our portfolios were finished, we went on a celebration fieldtrip to Galena to do a wood firing and a salt firing. We had SOOOOOOOO much fun camping for the weekend and stoking the kiln all night. Students made incredible food....Yum. Thanks for the tamales Aurora & family...We had great chaperones, too. Thanks to Mr. Couty, Mr. O'Carroll, Ms. Melendez, and Ms. Arter. They not only supervised so we could take the trip, but they brought art activities, stories, and camping expertise.
Jay Strommen led the workshop and he was a wealth of information and insights about art, ceramics, and firing. We plan to go there every year!!! The kiln will be cooled this weekend; we can't wait to see the work.
Click here to see pictures from the weekend.

Portfolio Winners at MCA

Aurora Aguiniga, Maria Curiel, and Andrea Gonzalez have created so many impressive works this year and they have been chosen as portfolio & scholarship winners at the All-City competition. Their art will be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art until May 3rd.

Barb Boksa: 2009 All-City Poster Winner

Barbara Boksa from Lane Tech is the All-City poster winner for 2009! Her bird, created from found objects including forks, a tennis ball, dart wings, and buttons, was one of many creative birds she has constructed from random materials. This piece will be featured next year on all of the All-City invitations, posters, and other materials advertising the event for 2010. Barb's imagination and sense of humor shine through in her fun works of art. Congratulations, Barb! Click here to see Lane students and their work at the All-City Show.

Lane Students at All-City Art Show

Some of this year’s best sculptures by Lane students will be exhibited at an IIT gallery in April and May. Please join us for opening night from 4-7pm, Monday, April 13th at Hermann Hall Conference Center – 3241 S. Federal Street. The following students will have their work on display and won medals for their outstanding achievements in ceramics, sculpture, and design objects: MaryCate Banaszkiewicz – silver medal, Barbara Boksa – silver medal, Amy Chemeleck – silver medal, Emina Mahmutovic – 2 silver medals, Kayla Marty – silver portfolio medal, Inela Masic – silver medal, Patrick O’Carroll 2 gold medals, Odette Ramirez – silver portfolio medal, Geri Raymundo – gold medal, Maria Rusnaczyk – gold medal, Kelly Segarra – 3 gold medals & 1 silver medal, Nermana Smajlovic – gold medal, Arielle Trinidad – 2 gold medals, Jazmin Villegas – gold medal, & Sarah Whitehouse – silver medal.

Lane Alum Tara O'Hara at BFA Show

This week and next you can see the work of current BFA graduates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, including tens of graceful ceramic bottles created by Lane '05 graduate Tara O'Hara, who has been studying ceramics and art at SAIC for the past four years. Her work is shown among over two hundred other graduates working in a variety of media. The show is open until April 3rd, and located at 37 S. State Street, downtown. It is on the 7th Floor and open from 11am-6pm, Tuesday-Saturday. Congratulations, Tara. Your work is amazing and we are so proud of you!!!

Snow Days 2009

A couple weeks ago, two groups of Lane art students finished creating impressive six foot sculptures made from snow as part of the first ever "Snow Days Chicago" event. On the corner of Michigan and Balbo in downtown Chicago (where the sculptures have slowly been melting), the teams carved out their designs in sub-freezing temperatures. They did a fantastic job. Check out the pictures by clicking on the heading "Snow Days" above. One team, including Patrick O'Carroll (captain), Drea Gonzalez, Sara Mitchell, Juline Planthabar, & Arielle Trinidad, carved a roaring lion from the block of frozen snow. The other team, including Kayla Marty (captain), Maria Curiel, Odette Ramirez, Kelly Segarra, and Nermana Smajlovic, sculpted an upside-down head being held there by a hand. On our first day of sculpting, it was warm & rainy, so we went to the Spertus Museum and the Art Institute for the day. Then these dedicated students sculpted all day on Lincoln's Day, then came back the next night to work until past midnight, when the temperatures were cold enough to do detail work. We met a lot of great professional sculptors at the event and it was one of the best experiences ever. Much thanks to Anne Hickey from the Mayor's Office, and Nancy Cortes from the Office of Art Education at CPS, for inviting us to participate in this awesome event. It was SO much fun!!! I hope they do it again next year!

Go to the City Museum!

If you are able to take a weekend road trip with your family and friends, I HIGHLY recommend St. Louis. Just four to five hours away you can see the City Museum, a really off-the-wall place put together by a bunch of artists in St. Louis. The museum is encrusted in mosaics made from traditional tiles to found objects, and there are wacky exhibits all over the museum, including giant slides, climbing tunnels (including steel-mesh outdoor climbing tubes four stories in the air that lead from found broken buses to airplanes to fire engines). On the premises, there is a glass-blowing studio, skate park, old pinball machines, the Museum of Mirth, Mystery, and Mayhem, thrift shops, "enchanted" caves, an aquarium, real ball pits, a shoelace factory, and other oddities. It is one of the most interesting stops in America. While you're in St. Louis, you can also see the St. Louis Museum of Art, which has an excellent collection of ceramics and crafts. And, of course, you should visit the Gateway Arch, designed by architect Eero Saarinen, where you can ride an egg-shaped elevator up 630 feet high for an incredible view of the city and the Mississippi River. Say "hi" to my grandma while you're in town.