Friday, March 29, 2024
 
Click HERE to sign up to receive Eye On Sun Valley's Daily News Email
 
Depicting Metamorphosis Through Art
Loading
   
Monday, October 1, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Franz Kafka’s novella “The Metamorphosis” tells the story of a salesman who wakes up one morning to find that he’s a huge insect and must now struggle to adjust to his new condition.

Change for the students in Eleanor Jewitt’s 10th grade English classes isn’t as fantastical. But it can certainly be impactful for the Wood River High School students as they deal with the death of a beloved great-grandfather or or work to escape the clutches of an eating disorder.

Students in Jewitt’s and Jenni Murphy’s classes spent the past month learning how to explore change in their own lives through the scope of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.” And they did so with the help of an art project introduced by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts’ enrichment education outreach sponsored by Alan and Wendy Pesky.

“In literature you never read about a static character. There’s always an arc of change,” said Jewitt. “How we respond to change is a fundamental part of life. And this subject is perfect for the start of the school year because even going from summer back to school is a big shift for these students.”

During the first session the students took part in a mindfulness-based activity, employing a Japanese printing technique called Suminagashi, or “floating ink.”

They took ink and water to paper, then watched the metaphor of change unfold before their eyes as  the ink rippled through the water, creating something different than they had expected.

A week later, the students altered their two-dimensional ink-on-paper into three-dimensional sculptures that symbolically represented change taking place in their lives.

Drake Humphreys sat at his desk underneath posters students had made of books like “Catcher in the Rye,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Cold Mountain” and “A Modest Proposal,” and rolled the art he’d created the week before into a pipe.

“My great-grandfather just passed away, and we always had big family gatherings on his farm where we would light a flame in a pipe and try to make the biggest bonfire we could make,” he said. “Since he passed away, nothing has been the same. If I had it to do over again, I would hang around the fire more because you never know what you miss until it’s gone.”

As the students worked, Jordyn Dooley-- the new enrichment educator at The Center-- coaxed one young man who was having difficulty coming up with an idea for exploring change.

Is there something changing that’s meaningful to you?” she asked him. “How about the fact that you just started a new school year? How different is it having a year of high school under your belt?”

Ashlyn Rogers had no problem coming up with a subject. She immediately seized on the project as a way to symbolize her fight against an eating disorder. She portrayed it by creating her favorite flower—the colorful Cape Daisy, a native plant of South Africa.

“Flowers push through windstorms and survive, and they look beautiful even if they’re a little wilted,” she said. “If something so small can do it, I can do it.”

Alonzo Salinas worked to show how the back hole is changing the galaxy. Katy Heywood used origami birds to symbolize migration.

“I can relate this to myself since I recently moved from West Magic to Hailey,” she said.

And Gillian Simcoe created a piece of art to show her support for LBGT students as society changes to allow them to come out of the closet.

“I want to show they matter and that we support them,” she said. “The heart’s to show we’re welcoming them, that they don’t have to hide, anymore.”

Art has been found to be “an incredible learning tool,” helping students achieve increased knowledge of core subject matter, said Dooley. The Center partners with Blaine County School District to integrate the arts into such subjects as math, science and English. And this allows students an opportunity to approach a topic in a new way, increase exploration of the topic and deepen the discussion, she added.

Student Kennedy Larsen was glad to take part.

“We’ve never done anything like this in English class,” she said. “It’s cool to do different things. And, I think, it helps us come up with a different way of thinking about change.”

The students will couple the art project with essays addressing personal experiences of change, said Jewitt.

“We want them to see how change can be good and bad,” she added. “They’ll explore cause and effect, and they’ll compare and contrast.”

~  Today's Topics ~


Local Bands Offer New Perspective on Who's a Local

Can You Ski on Water? It’s Pond Skim Time

Jake Adicoff Wins Overall World Cup Championship while Other Skiers Do Well in SuperTour Finals
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Website problems? Contact:
Michael Hobbs
General Manager /Webmaster
Mike@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
Got a story? Contact:
Karen Bossick
Editor in Chief
(208) 578-2111
Karen@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
 
Advertising /Marketing /Public Relations
Leisa Hollister
Chief Marketing Officer
(208) 450-9993
leisahollister@gmail.com
 
Brandi Huizar
Account Executive
(208) 329-2050
brandi@eyeonsunvalley.com
 
 
ABOUT US
EyeOnSunValley.com is the largest online daily news media service in The Wood River Valley, publishing 7 days a week. Our website publication features current news articles, feature stories, local sports articles and video content articles. The Eye On Sun Valley Show is a weekly primetime television show focusing on highlighted news stories of the week airing Monday-Sunday, COX Channel 13. See our interactive Kiosks around town throughout the Wood River Valley!
 
info@eyeonsunvalley.com      Press Releases only
 
P: 208.720.8212
P.O. Box 1453 Ketchum, ID  83340
LOGIN

© Copyright 2023 Eye on Sun Valley