Ever wonder why a turtle is swimming over the front entrance at The Academy?
Or a body is hanging out in the locker bays?
The 3-D design class is at it again.

Ms. Kristin Stephens gave her students in her 3-D design class a month to produce their own art work and display around the school. They first learned about three different types of art, land art, Environmental art, and Eco art. They are all interrelated. They share some of the same characteristics, but also different.

Land art is directly from the landscape of nature with no other materials. Environmental art addresses some social and political issues that are related to the environment, it is usually made with some type of recycled material to bring some attention to some type of environmental issues and it can be made inside or outside and is usually an installation or sculpture, the students are learning what the means.

Finally,eco art is similar to environmental art but it delves more into economics, ethics, politics, or science based and Eco art can be made, it can be more than just a sculpture, it can be a painting.

Shelby Bandt, Madelyn Poss, and Olivia Santoyo worked vigorously and produced some well-made works of art.

Olivia Santoyo’s art work is of a trash can filled with balloons and is placed out front,her’s is meant to be temporary because her’s was made with balloons that she blew up and stuck in plastic bags and underneath she illuminated the whole thing with a light and so you could see in the daytime or night. The photograph is the lasting documentation of this piece.

Shelby Bandt made a turtle sculpture, using a variety of recycled materials. She placed her sculpture in a very specific location. Shelby hung her turtle in the outdoor area in front of the front office because of the blue tiles, so for her the blue tiles were like the ocean.

Madelyn Poss grabbed onto the idea of eco art and produced a painting. Almost every mark Madelyn made on her painting was from a stamp of something you find in the trash can.

The project did have some requirements though. The requirements included that most of the pieces had to be outdoors, the location could not be random, and there had to be a reason for the location. There was a deadline for the project and the pieces had to be installed by the deadline. The students also had to take photographs of the work, and video themselves working on the project.

“They chose the materials, depending on what their message was. Before they even started making the piece, we had a one on one discussion about their work. They talked about what was their purpose, what are you trying to get across, to talk about best practices, and the best materials to use. It is all about process, you figure things out while you are making the piece.” Ms. Stevens said.