Artists in Schools – A Victorian Government Initiative
In 4th Term for 20 days all of the students and teacher Nina Perry worked with professional artist Zoe Amor on an exciting project called the ‘Window to Your Imagination’, involving drawing, design, sculpture, construction and exploring the dynamics of space, scale, position, line, form, shape and colour. The students all received good quality visual notebooks, pencils and fineliners as part of their ‘toolbox of knowledge’ to encourage them to record ideas, acquire understanding of a visual vocabulary, and collect images, forms, structures and ideas for future use. With this visual literacy, the imagination is free to make the impossible real and the student gained a deep insight into what is needed to produce an artwork.
Throughout the project, many students used various materials for the first time as part of the artistic process. These included: wood and balsa wood, wire, feathers, glue guns, plaster and modroc, clay, cloth material, wool, acetate, pastel, fineliner pens, watercolour, using a viewfinder and found objects/material for 2D and 3D work. Materials that were not used but mentioned in the original proposal were wax for casting and clay for firing. As the project evolved it became necessary to find the right materials to suit the concept of individual artworks which did not necessarily fit literally into a ‘window’ format or theme. This aspect became one of the highlights of the project as each student put time and effort into discovering and extending their imagery with the materials they liked best.