Bottle caps and other rubbish form foundation of this year’s theme day
By PHILIP DEVENCENTIS & photos by CHRIS PETERS, May 6, 2009
Suburban News newspaper
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Above, kindergartners make refrigerator magnets from recycled materials as part of a two-day study with artist Michelle Stitzlein. Right, Stitzlein helping a youngster with her project.
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WYCKOFF, NJ - Fumbling through boxes of plastic bottle caps, students at Washington Elementary School discovered art in an unlikely form last month.
Junk, litter, rubbish - call it what you will, the kids in Grades K-5 corroborated the oft heard adage “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
To complement this year’s school theme, “Going Green,” PTO organized a two-day project in which students drilled bottle caps, with parents’ assistance, to 13 freeform wooden sculptures. The artwork resembled flowers and insects - bumblebees, butter-flies, caterpillars, dragonflies, lady-bugs - and was carved by volunteer Ed Schweighardt and painted by fifth-graders.
More than 20 parent volunteers assisted students in 11 workshops, said PTO member Carrie Thompson, who chairs the organization’s art appreciation committee.
“I think it’s something the students will remember forever,” Thompson said. “They’re creating everlasting sculptures that combine an effort to go green and an emphasis on the arts. It’s really a school-wide effort, and that’s what makes it so wonderful”.
Michelle Stitzlein, an artist from Baltimore, Ohio, visited the school to help with the project and to teach students about the aesthetic and ecological value of art made with recyclable material.
It was Stitzlein’s first visit to a school outside of Ohio. The $2,700 cost of the project was paid for by the PTO.
At an assembly in the gym, Stitzlein told students she visits foreign countries like Guatemala and India, for inspiration. They’re not afraid to use vivid colors on large buildings, Stitzlein said, flipping through a slideshow of her journeys.
Stitzlein, a 1989 graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, showed students pictures of unique architecture from across world and of her home and art studio, a brightly colored converted grange hall. She also showed pictures of her artwork, all of it made of discarded objects, such as toothbrushes, license plates, bicycle tires, piano keys and broken glass.
I think there’s a use for everything - at least twice,” said Stitzlein, wearing a blue apron highlighted with bottle cap flowers. “Sometimes it takes an artist to figure that out, and sometimes it takes a scientist.”
Principal Scott Blake said he was “extremely pleased” with the project, adding that he particularly enjoyed the collaboration between Stitzlein and the Washington community.
“I was pleased that the entire student body participated in a project that will help beautify and brighten the school for years come,” Blake said.
Aluminum posts were fastened to the sculptures, which have been installed for permanent display in the school’s new courtyard. An eight-member school beautification committee, consisting of parents, teachers and Blake, designed the courtyard.
The bottle caps came from a variety of products, from shampoo to Gatorade, and were drilled to match their corresponding colors on the sculptures. Students mixed and matched different shapes, lighter pigments with darker ones.
Kindergartners participated in a lighter version of the project, sticking bottle caps to recycled CDs with clear adhesive dots called Zots. Magnets were affixed to the back of the CDs and taken home a refrigerator art.
In addition to the sculptures, fifth-graders and art teacher Marci O’Brien painted a mural inspired by Claude Monet’s “Water-Lily Pond,”, which also was covered with bottle caps and hung in the courtyard.
“It’s the art of found objects,” O’Brien said, We’re using materials that would otherwise pile up in a landfill, and we’re using them to create beautiful pieces of art.”
Students began collecting bottle caps in September, O’Brien said, eventually amassing at least 1,000 of each color. She said school wide contests were held in which students saved bottle caps of certain colors week by week and were rewarded with pizza parties and homework passes.