By: Tessah Boggess

Over the past week, Pam Pomerenk’s beginning sculpture class took ordinary styrofoam blocks and turned them into strangely shaped 3-D works of art. The students started this project by drawing an abnormal shape on a piece of paper and tracing this shape onto a block of styrofoam. They then used different tools to carve the block into a three-dimensional version of the shape they drew.
According to Pomerenk, the objective of this project was to go from shape to form, in other words, 2-D to 3-D. The final products were supposed to be abstract forms with no representational factor. They were to be completely random in shape. The students of these beginning sculpture classes had a full week to draw the shape, carve it out, and use sandpaper to smooth the surface before moving on to the next step. They then had half of a school week to paint their sculpture however they chose. Many students did solid colors, but some did patterns on their projects.
When asked their opinions on the level of difficulty for the assignment, the students had responses ranging from a five to a seven on a scale from one to ten, ten being most difficult. Senior Briley Ahrens said that the project for him was about a seven out of ten. His reasoning for this was that after he spent so much time painting, it would stick to things when drying and the paint would peel back off. Sophomore Jordan Trowbridge also said the project was fairly difficult, rating it a five. She said that for her the carving was difficult. On the other end of the scale, some students found the project to be easy and not as challenging as they would have thought it would be.
Overall, the project was a fun way for students to begin getting a feel for what beginning sculpture is all about. The final class day for working on this project was Wednesday, September 16.
According to Pomerenk, the objective of this project was to go from shape to form, in other words, 2-D to 3-D. The final products were supposed to be abstract forms with no representational factor. They were to be completely random in shape. The students of these beginning sculpture classes had a full week to draw the shape, carve it out, and use sandpaper to smooth the surface before moving on to the next step. They then had half of a school week to paint their sculpture however they chose. Many students did solid colors, but some did patterns on their projects.
When asked their opinions on the level of difficulty for the assignment, the students had responses ranging from a five to a seven on a scale from one to ten, ten being most difficult. Senior Briley Ahrens said that the project for him was about a seven out of ten. His reasoning for this was that after he spent so much time painting, it would stick to things when drying and the paint would peel back off. Sophomore Jordan Trowbridge also said the project was fairly difficult, rating it a five. She said that for her the carving was difficult. On the other end of the scale, some students found the project to be easy and not as challenging as they would have thought it would be.
Overall, the project was a fun way for students to begin getting a feel for what beginning sculpture is all about. The final class day for working on this project was Wednesday, September 16.