CHINA SPRING, Texas (KWTX) – China Spring High School art students spent their Tuesday reading to elementary and primary school students alongside their artwork—’larger-than-life’ sculptures of classic story book characters.
“It’s so rewarding seeing how happy they were,” junior art student, Olivia Bolton, said. “Just for those few seconds of just the pure joy on their face is totally worth it.”
Bolton and her group read ‘Clifford at the Circus’ to elementary students next to a nearly 7-ft. sculpture of ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog.’ They transformed cardboard, wood and other materials into the classic character.
“We nailed the cardboard in to the wood,” she said. “Then, after we had built a circular structure, we papier-mâché…then painted it.”
Clifford is one of five giant sculptures the art classes made. Groups made a ‘Pete the Cat,’ the pigeon from ‘Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,’ a Curious George and ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’ The groups worked on these creations for about three months.
“Probably the hardest part was just trying to find what would be the best for making it circular in areas and how we could form that together,” Bolton said. “We just brainstormed a lot and took everyone’s ideas into account and just made sure that everyone’s voice is being heard so that we could build the dog the best it could be.”
The idea began with art teacher, Bradley Settles.
“I needed us to get to a point where my high school students weren’t turning in artwork, me grading it, giving it back to them, and somehow it ended up in the trash,” he said. “This is that moment where the art can make an impact, and that’s really what I needed my high school students to see.”
After the groups read to kids Tuesday, Settles hoped his students saw the impact of their artwork first-hand.
“The positives are that my high school students got to make an impact and see that impact and know that their art made a difference,” he said. “These elementary kids today are creating and making memories between reading and art, and I think that’s huge.”
Bolton said she will never forget the project and hopes their months of hard work will be make a life-long impact to the kids.
“I just hope they remember how cool it was and how they felt in the moment,” she said. “Us just reading them the book and seeing the real-life dog in person…I just hope they remember that.”
The sculptures will remain at the primary and elementary schools through the end of the school year.
As for what’s next for the China Spring High School art class…
“If it gets approved, I wrote a grant so that we can do the largest student-led drawing in the world, meaning it could only be viewed from a drone,” Settles said.
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