The art department has been busy at Hastings High this year. Blake Marquardt, the Sculpture and Advanced Pottery teacher, is constantly assigning his students new and intriguing projects to work on.
The most recent assignment given to Advanced Pottery students was a master pot, or a pot inspired by an experienced potter’s work. They have been working on these pots for about a week and plan to wrap up their work in the next month.
“What they’re trying to do is find a famous work of art, whether it’s a 2D or 3D, and use that as inspiration into their work but they’re learning about new artists at the same time,” Marquardt said.
Senior Isabel Shafer is currently working on this new project in Advanced Pottery. She chose The Birth of Venus, a famous painting by Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, as her inspiration piece.
“I’m just working on what shape I want and how I’m going to build it, either with coils or molding,” Shafer said.
Foreign exchange student Fiona Lundgaard is also working on her master pot. She is recreating the painting The Starry Night.
“My vision is that in place of the paint strokes, I want to carve it out on my pot,” Lundgaard said.
Most of Marquardt’s students just started on their master pot as they have had three previous assignments in the first quarter. These four projects mesh into a pottery technique called a four-of-a-kind project.
“First, they tried to match or throw four replicating cups or bowls. We moved on to the nature pot, so they took something from nature that inspired them, whether that was just the texture or it actually symbolizes it. Then they worked on throwing a pitcher by learning a new technique of pulling a handle. Now the new one is the master pot,” Marquardt said.
Marquardt’s sculpture class is also working on a fun new project where they sculpt their own hands.
“We can sculpt our hands in whatever position we want and we have to make it as realistic as possible. I’m having a lot of fun with it,” senior Kolbie Kaiser said.
The students in the Advanced Pottery and Sculpture at Hastings High are having a lot of fun with their projects, and they seem to be learning a lot along the way. The images below are finished projects, as well as some of the projects still in the making.
Blake Marquardt’s model pitcher
Isabel Shafer’s pitcher
Fiona Lungaard works on her Starry Night master pot.
Kolbie Kaiser’s hand sculpture (front)
Kolbie Kaiser’shand sculpture (back)
