Seward High School Art

January 28, 2014

Seward High Mural

For the past 2 weeks, Seward High Art Students have been collaborating on a new mural which will fill the space above the school’s entrance. This mural was funded by both the School Yard Habitat Project (through the Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance) and the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area. This funding paid for all supplies, as well hiring Justine Pechuzal as a Mural Instructor to guide us through the process!

The funding meant that the subject of the mural would include Native plants as well as a human, or Cultural element. Since it is to be located at our schools entrance, it also had to include Seward High School in the design and have some school spirit as well!

Students collaborated on a design which would include all three of these concepts. We discussed various ideas and came to a general concensus on the final design:

The design includes mountains and ocean to show our habitat, various native plants that we all recognize, and human hands on either end using these plants for food or medicine for the cultural element.

Students drew native plant species individually and in guided practices. We picked the best drawing of each plant and used those in the mural design. Here is Justin Schutter’s drawing of a Fireweed which we used in the mural:

Using Photoshop, we scanned all the chosen drawings and arranged them in our final mural design. We decided to include all of the mountains in Seward, beginning with Mt. Alice, spanning over to Fox island in the middle, and wrapping all the way around to Benson on the right.

Drawings chosen were: Hands-Mary Ramirez, Fireweed-Justin Schutter, Oyster Mushrooms-Erin Doty, Bluebells-Hannalyn Ohlsen, Fern-Hannah Norris, Blueberries-Diana German, Spruce Pinecones-Alicia Morris & Basil Dougherty, Forget-me-nots-Brandon Moore, Watermelon Berries-Ryan Johnson, Mare’s Tail- Anthony Gibson, Devil’s Club-Jasmine Sagner. Great job!

Over the weekend, Justine and I projected this design onto our huge mural panels and traced it with black painted in outlines so that students could begin painting on Monday. Jason Bickling and Shelly Walker were kind enough to let us use the middle school art room as our mural painting space over last week. Thanks!

Students painting the mural

Finished Mural Detail

Finished Mural (unmounted)

This has been a great collaborative process and all students in Art classes at Seward High truly contributed in some way, be it through ideas, drawing , or painting. Thanks so much to Justine for being our Guest Artist and guiding us along the way! Also thanks to Jennifer Headke of the Mural Society for donating paint and drop cloths and Lenny of Seward Auto Body and Paint for clear coating the mural with no labor charge!

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December 19, 2013

Ceramics

by e10391

Ceramics students finished up the semester with spoon rests, lots of wheel projects, and busts! Thanks so much to the Irvins for donating so much clay to us I was able to give each student their own block to carve! It was a big and messy task. I was amazed at the quality of the work that they did, we have some talented students here.

Audra Atwood

Tessa Lyman

Tyler Quiring

Veronica Wilde

Tiffanie Rook

Alex Ashford

Renzee Comia

Jasmine Sagner

Michael Walker

Jon Valencia

Tessa Lyman

Emily Crain

Audra Atwood

Alex Ashford

Andy Hughes

Jon Valencia

Tiffanie Rook

Ayla Bunch

Erin Spradlin

Sara Morell

Brittany Baldwin

Alex Ashford

Alexis Nicolas

Matr Morris

Victoria Piro

Kris Hettick

Parker Hinton

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Mandalas

by e10391

Seward High art students all made designs with radial symmetry, looking to the mandalas of the east for inspiration. We used compasses, protractors and rulers to design the rough drafts, some drawing by hand and others tracing images to make even designs repeated around a center point. They ended up using all sorts of media, colored pencil, oil pastel, paints and markers and really did a great job!

Josh Dotomain

Tessa Lyman

Ashley Whiteshield

Alyssa Leisure

Darci McFaul

Hannalyn Ohlsen

Rachel Tougas

Izzy Barnwell

Sara Tolson

Shyanne Washik

Jessica Fry

Logan Smith

Moriah Doepken

Vitali Sturdy

Anthony Gibson

Zane Zimmerman

Catelynn Hettick

Michaela Osenga

Filed under at 8:37 pm and tagged Mandalas, seward high school, Waggoner
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December 18, 2013

Graphic Design

by e10391

One Point Perspective Scenes

Soren Fejes

Damnyan Letter

Jonah DeBoard

Sara Tolson

Jessica Degnan

Thomas Zweifel

Liam McFaul

Alicia Morris

Flaming Objects

Jessica Degnan

Alica Morris

Jarrod VanderVegt

Thomas Zweifel

Liam McFaul

Movie Posters

Alicia Morris

Jarod VanderVegt

Album Cover

Book Cover

Damnyan Letter

Mandalas

Jessica Degnan

Jonah DeBoard

Sara Tolson

Thomas Zweifel

Zane Zimmerman

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December 11, 2013

Leatherwork

by e10391

I was inspired to do some deep cleaning in my supply closet and stumbled upon stashes of leather and leatherworking tools from the late 1990s I’d guess. This deduction is due to finding Seward’s own Kris Peck’s name stamped into one of the scraps. I decided to put this fine resource to use although I had literally no experience with leather tooling. A few Youtube tutorials and a visit to Tandy Leather in Anchorage later, we were in business. Students began with keychains to get the basic idea, and then moved onto a bigger project: wallets, holsters, belts, purses, dog colars, moccasins… We tooled the leather, stamped it, stained it, painted it, riveted it, sewed it, and so on. Here are some of their projects!

Ashley Whiteshield

Cody Hall

Shyanne Washik

B Waggoner

Erin Spradlin

Michaela Osenga

Jon Valencia

Rhett Sieverts

Kelsey McKean

Alyssa Leisure

Grant Orvis

Hannalyn Ohlsen

Renzee Comia

Olivia Beckham

Logan Smith

Renzee Comia

Andy Hughes

Rachel Tougas

Vitali Sturdy

Ashley Whiteshield

Hunter Kratz

Tyle Quiring

Hannalyn Ohlsen

Sabrina Spiers

Zane Zimmerman

Olivia Beckham

Jasmine Sagner

Anthony Gibson

Tessa Lyman

Grace Calhoon

Alex Ashford

Reid Broughton

Sara Tolson

Filed under at 8:13 pm and tagged leather, Seward High Art, Waggoner
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November 27, 2013

Seward High Graphic Design

by e10391

I have been blessed with a really talented, creative, well behaved Graphic Design Class this semester. I’m amazed how patiently and dilligently they work in the computer lab day after day. Thanks 5th hour! BWaggoner…. Here are some of their projects. Here is the blog where I post their assignments.

Concert Posters

Soren Fejes

Jessica Degnan

New Currency

Thomas Zweifel

Sara Tolson

Liam McFaul

Jessica Degnan

Jonah DeBoard

Damnyan Letter

Alicia Morris

Mount Marathon Designs

Zane Zimmerman

Thomas Zweifel

Liam McFaul

Damnyan Letter

Soren Fejes

Jonah DeBoard

Anthony Gibson

Alicia Morris

Local Businesses

Zane Zimmerman

Liam McFaul

Thomas Zweifel

Jonah DeBoard

Thomas Zweifel

Alicia Morris

Liam McFaul

Jarrod VanderVegt

Alicia Morris

Filed under at 10:00 pm and tagged graphic design, Seward High Art, Waggoner
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November 11, 2013

Klimt Style Paintings

by e10391

In Art Class at SHS, we studied the portrature of Gustav Klimt, which is known for its prominent use of gold and patterns. Students drew and painted their own human protrait with acrylic paint and added gold detailing with gold paint markers. This was a difficult project, they all were really patient and did a great job!

Izzy Barnwell

Ashley Whiteshield

Alyssa Leisure

Catelynn Hettick

Rachel Tougas

Logan Smith

Shyanne Washik

Dakota Nickell

Andy Hughes

Moriah Doepken

Vitali Sturdy

Jessica Fry

Anthony Gibson

Grant Orvis

Renzee Comia

Tasha Murphy

Erin Spradlin

Cody Hall

Sara Tolson

Lacy Knafel

Michaela Osenga

Tessa Lyman

Hanalynn Ohlsen

Filed under at 3:52 pm and tagged acrylic, Gustav Klimt, seward high school, Waggoner
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October 22, 2013

Day of The Dead Masks on Display at the Seward Library

by e10391

In Seward High Ceramics Class we studied the Mexican Holiday, “Dia de Los Muertos” or Day of the Dead. On November 1st and 2^nd Mexican Families celebrate the souls of their departed loved ones with prayers, treats, and skull images adorned with flowers, candles, diamonds, spider webs and crosses. This holiday has Aztec roots, this civilization did not fear death, however viewed it as a continuation of life, an awakening from a dream. Some students went in a more Halloween-ish direction with their masks, which was fine with me, because they all did a great job!