Oxford Hills Middle School Art

News from Sue Moccia

Sue emailed with a photo of a large glass mosaic photo attached of a piece that her Art Club had created. She said: “It is so beautiful when the light shines through the colors.”

Depiction of the different courses students participate in at our Middle School; Language Arts, music,health, math, social studies, science, art, spanish and phys. ed. The first panel is our mascot.

The project started out with an idea for a series of mosaic windows called “Peace from Broken Pieces”.  Sue wrote a proposal and sent it to Donorschoose.org.  It was funded and the students created 3 peace signs for the school.

They brainstormed other peaceful images and after much discussion decided to make an American flag for their local Veteran’s Home. The school’s Literacy Specialist saw the window and asked the students to make one for the Cole Transportation Museum in Bangor. Each year the 8th graders take a trip there
to talk to the Veterans. Under Sue’s guidance students created one and sent it to them and it hangs in the front hall of the museum.

Sue also has a group of educators that come to the art room on Thursday afternoons to make mosaic windows. Many are people who thought they had no artistic talent but are now hooked on glass. It has been a great way to get to know the people in the district.

Teacher window

Thank you Sue for sharing the information about this wonderful artwork and the photos!

Mosaic

Camden Rockport Middle School

Throughout the school year, under the direction of art teacher Kristen Andersen, students created a 20 foot long, 5 feet high mosaic. The artwork based on an Eric Hopkins like painting has thousands of tiles. You can see the completed piece as well as the work in progress over the last seven months by going to the blog that Kristen set up so the community could follow the development of the work. If you have a chance to drop by the school and see if I would recommend you do. Click here http://crmsmosaicproject.blogspot.com/ to see images of the work as it was created.

I was able to be at the reception on the day it was unveiled. I wasn’t able to be there until the end of the event however there were still a few parents and students there. Eric Hopkins was on his way out and his face and few sentences communicated how impressed he was with the students’ accomplishment. Kristen of course, was very proud, and as you can see she has quite the smile on her face in the photo below. It was great to see the piece completed, installed, and once again I was reminded of the power of the arts in action! For years students can remember their part and return to school for generations and point to the section they completed. They can imagine that moment in time and know that each persons contributions are important to the whole.