Plaster people … a la George Segal - art project

Arts & Activities, May, 2003 by Michele Boulay

Those of us who are art educators know that it is often a challenging task, inventing new ideas that will both inspire and challenge our students and lead them toward new heights of creativity each year.

As an art educator, I believe it is vital to teaching to remain a working artist, someone who inspires her students by being a role model for them to emulate. Often, however, teaching consumes most of our time and energy during the school year. Summer is usually the only opportunity to truly create, without the responsibilities of teaching. It is also the best time, through my own experimentation with different sculptural mediums, that I am able to "invent" new assignments for the coming school year.

Last summer, I created a life-sized, plaster-cast self-portrait. My intent was to reflect my intense feelings and emotional ties to the ocean, and allow the piece to exude a feminine, yet powerful sense of strength. The sculpture would also evoke a sense of movement of tidal ebb and flow. I "solved the problem" (as I refer to projects with my sculpture students) by casting half my body with intentions of installing the piece on a wall as a relief sculpture. I learned about myself, my feelings about the subjective issues, and about the medium of working in plaster and its endless possibilities.

In September, I told my students about my summer project, and tried to get a sense of how they would feel about undertaking this type of assignment. They couldn't wait to get started! I had to quell their enthusiasm for the moment in order to present the lesson in a more formal manner. I wanted to present the historical aspects of the idea, ensure proper preparation and planning, and still allow them to harness their enthusiastic impulses to get started, A.S.A.P.!

I presented the lesson to my students from the historical perspective. Slides were shown, images from the Internet were utilized, and lively class discussions ensued regarding the sculptor, George Segal, who worked in the medium of plaster installations in the 1960s. Most of his figures are cast in plaster and set in an actual environment, such as a lunch counter or street crossing (see Arts & Activities, June 2000, page 23). My students were then told to develop an idea for their three-dimensional self-portrait that would reflect an emotion or social comment on a contemporary issue.

The students were assigned a series of drawings and sketches in order to develop the design element of the project. One student decided to portray herself as a waitress, eventually titling her sculpture, At Your Service. This student cast half of her torso and, after further research and problem-solving discussions, attached that part of the sculpture to a stretched canvas frame.

She did on-site research for her project by visiting a local 1950s-style diner, taking photographs and doing sketches. She incorporated the images by relief sculpting the shapes onto the canvas, depicting booths, curtained windows, a snack bar, an opened door in the background, and black-and-white tile flooring. This student's sculpture won a Gold Key Award in the Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards in 2001.

Another student's sculpture, which also won a Gold Key in Boston in 2001, became a finalist at the Regional Competition in New York, and went on to win a Silver Award at the National Competition in Washington, D.C. This piece, entitled, Road Rage, was a portrait of the student driving her car while talking on her cell phone, and spilling a mug of coffee.

I had 12 students in my advanced 3-D class this year, and each one "solved the problem" in their own way. Each project was as unique as each sculptor's personality. My students not only learned about using a new medium for creative expression, but also became more aware of serf-identity and ways in which the art world can contribute to, and make a statement about, modern life.

This project offers the student endless possibilities for problem-solving activities. All of the potential "problems" could not possibly be anticipated, prior to starting each self-portrait. That is what makes this assignment such a wonderful learning experience for the student sculptor. Not only will they learn about form and function, but they will also learn practical hands-on experience in problem solving. Through assembling their sculptures, they will learn about what makes things in our environment structurally sound. This project also offers students the opportunity to work cooperatively, and to share their ideas and learning experiences with each other.

Taunton High School is a large city school with a student body of over 2,000. I was fortunate, in that my class size was small. I had 12 students who were in grades 11 and 12. They were all girls, so when it was time to cast each other, we didn't have problems with pairing our teams. There was quite a bit of giggling when we first started and the students had to plaster each other. They soon overcame their shyness, though, and became engrossed in the process.