A Sixth Grade Landscape - Part 2

In my last post, I explained the story behind A Sixth Grade Landscape: an art piece I made out of trash items collected by sixth graders from Chedoke Public School. I visited the class in May to deliver the finished piece, and it was a highlight of my year for sure!

It was wonderful to see all the faces behind the unconventional art materials that went into this artwork. After I revealed the piece to the class, the kids came in for a closer look. Some of them could pick out the pieces they contributed: "that's my old friendship bracelet", "those are my old pencil grips". It was a delight for me to see the kids interact with this work that we had, in essence, created together.

Sixth Grade Landscape (photo, Jennifer Miscas)

After all the kids had a closer look at the artwork, their teacher, Jennifer, brought home what this collaborative art project was all about: "I hope this experience has helped you think more carefully about what we throw away, and to find creative uses for the things we might throw away every day". Her words so articulately echoed what drives so much of what I do in my creative work.

It has been such a thrill to meet a teacher and a group of students who are keen to be more creative and responsible in their approach to garbage. A few weeks ago, Jennifer sent me the article some of her students wrote about our project for their school newsletter. They've summed up the experience better than I ever could.

From Junk to Art!

Our teacher, Ms. Miscas, was inspired to take up a challenge she read about in Hamilton Magazine last summer. The article was written about a local artist, Jane Koopman, who encouraged people to begin collecting small throw-away items in a "Jane Jar". Once the jar was full, Jane would happily use the collection to create up-cycled works of art.

In September, Ms. Miscas challenged our grade 6 class to begin filling our own classroom "Jane Jar". She encouraged us to put items in the jar that represented us as 11 and 12 year old students at Chedoke School. By January we had filled our jar with broken pencils, hair bands, old toys, friendship bracelets etc...Jane picked up our jar and went to work creating a unique art piece just for us!

The reveal took place in May! Jane created a stunning picture that represented some of nature's most beautiful things: flowers, trees, and the sun, using many of the objects we collected. It was fascinating to see our pencil grips turned into blades of grass, and our play money turned into flower petals!

Not only do we now have a unique art piece to hang in our classroom, but we also learned that the smallest bits and pieces that we might normally throw away are valuable items to eco-friendly artists in our community.

We can't wait to start our next "Jane Jar"!!

Written by, Ahmad Hamadi, Mariam Rabaiaa, Kyra Guzylak-Messam, and Kailyn Walsh (on behalf of our grade 6 classmates at Chedoke School)