Project nets the artistic talents of middle school

By BECKY WALDROP

Gazette-Times reporter

When Westland Middle School art teacher Joel Weinstein was browsing the offerings at an Oregon State University surplus sale last spring, he happened upon eight sealed boxes of road markers.

Eight boxes contained 800 new yellow ceramic discs, and Weinstein pondered the possibilities for his unusual find. With the consolidation of Highland View Middle School with Western View Middle School, Weinstein knew there would be about 700 students at the combined school this year.

Not yet sure what the discs would become, he brought them to the register. Weinstein is a regular at these auctions, and when the manager heard the road markers were going to be used for some sort of art project, he donated them to the school.

"I get some of my best supplies from the OSU sales," Weinstein said.

He presented the pieces to a class of eighth-graders last year and they created models that have been replicated by almost every student at Westland this year. The results now hang in the school's front hallway in three sections of fish net. Students painted stunning scenes and designs in vibrant colors. Some people attached antennae and wings made of Popsicle sticks, wires and old computer parts.

There isn't a right or wrong solution in this project, Weinstein said. What's important is that everyone, including Westland teachers and support staff, participate.

"I feel like art is important for everybody," he said. "You don't have to be an artist. Just have fun."

To turn a road dot into a piece of art requires sandpaper, paint and a little creativity. Some of the students spent a lot of time planning the design, eventually tracing a pattern with a sheet of carbon paper on the rounded surface.

After they received instructions, sixth-graders in Elaine McManus' flex class rolled up sweatshirt sleeves and rubbed the shiny surfaces of the discs dull so they would be easier to paint.

Sixth-grader Ryan Coe saw a robot in his disc's future. After he applied a base coat of paint, he rifled through boxes and buckets of parts to find pieces that would become a robot's facial features.

"I need like a thick wire," Coe said, then found a blue strand and snipped it free with a pair of pliers. "Now I need eyes."

He found two old computer batteries for the eyes and a mounted computer switch for a nose. With a hot glue gun, he plans to add keyboard buttons on the sides.

Lindsey Olsen loves ocean animals, like the sea dragons on her T-shirt she wore to school Thursday. By copying the design on her shirt, her disc will depict a sea dragon, a creature native to the Australian coast, Olsen said.

McManus said her students looked forward to the art project, the only chance for some of them to do art this year. Students take art on a rotational basis, unless they're in band, and those students do not have any art classes, McManus explained.

That's one of the greatest things about a school-wide art project.

"We need more art in our schools," she said.