Wire has now expanded into many areas of the studio. During a museum visit we discussed how long it must have taken Shelia Pepe to finish her work as well as how different parts were interlinked. Building on these observations we supplied the children with their own sculpture armatures and an array of colored wire so they too could create a masterpiece.
The children worked alongside each other adding to their individual armatures. Comments of “It’s falling off” or “I’m twisting it” could be heard from table to table. Some children wanted to be done quickly but with encouragement discovered that they could add “Just one more color” to their structure. The excitement of seeing if they had used all the colors kept many at the table.
Subsequent days brought a new challenge with their sculptures. Building on our encouragement of drawing we asked the children to find their sculpture and to recreate it in marker in their drawing journals. For some this was intimating “I can’t draw that, I don’t know how to draw lines.” However breaking down the process into smaller steps made the whole idea more palatable.
Kyla created her sculpture in a quick, rather haphazard way. When it came time to sketch it she noticed the subtle differences, carefully observing the unique qualities of the varying wires. This helped her expand her thinking of her entire drawing.
She creatively ‘invented’ a way to duplicate the look of the two-ply twisted orange wire. “I’m gonna play a game that’s called follow that line.”
When she came to the copper wire she tested a theory…
“Maybe if we mix brown and black together we can get copper.”
“Yes, my idea worked – it is copper.”
