The month of February is abuzz with learning about salmon and an integration of art curriculum for each 3rd grader at Oceanlake School. Taft High School is helping cut cedar into salmon shapes and Oceanlake School will paint each of the 70 fish with participation from the children at Taft High School's Indian Education Cultural Night. The finished "Schooling Salmon" will first be exhibited in the White Room Gallery at the Lincoln City Cultural Center March 7th - 21st and then installed in its permanent location within the city, placement TBA. All are invited to the gallery on Sunday March 7th to meet the artists during the Opening Celebration from 1-3pm.
This photo is a painting created by Mary Beth Guerena's class last week after their "Annie Painter Masterpiece Painting" lesson and learning about spawning salmon in preparation for this project.
The Oceanlake students were working hard even before they started painting their salmon. Each 3rd grade teacher completed a lesson with the students on art and design, techniques and vocabulary, in preparation for our "Schooling Salmon" project. This "Annie Painter Masterpiece Artist Lesson" was a valuable experience and integration into the curriculum, especially since the school does have an art teacher. All of this work is displayed in the hallway at Oceanlake Elementary.
Visiting artist Dawn Stetzel goes into the elementary school; we convert a portable unit into an art room, and the Oceanlake students begin work on "Schooling Salmon".
Painting Design Sessions with 2 classes of 30 students on
Tuesday February 9th and Thursday Feb 11th, 2010
Each student also designed their own gallery invitation. These drawings become a stack of postcards for everyone to hand out and pass along to friends and family to attend the exhibit and the exhibit opening reception on March 7th.
A big thank you to Sandy Westfall for assisting during each art session at Oceanlake School. Sandy painted one of the 10 extra fish that were made "smolt-size" in comparison to the 60 other larger fish that the students are painting.
Sandy Westfall wrote this poem and shared it with students during the painting sessions.
Salmon
Clear clean water
Flowing over silken stones
Sharp edges hidden by
Frothing lace waves
She searches for
A quiet pool
Away from the turbulence
To dance love's ballet
A place of birth
The beginning of her death
The struggle to arrive
At the place of her own beginnings
An exhausting fight
Against the elements of her world
She will not stop
Will not be deterred
Will not be beaten
For the good of her own young
For the life of her species.
The students are finished painting and now it is my turn to add finishing touches like this black line rubbed into the carved lines in the cedar.
Just like the salmon school to prepare to run upstream, these salmon are preparing to become a permanent public art installation within the city...
