we love a good challenge, don’t we?

This story starts at the beginning of the fall semester.  My Sculpture 3 class is set up to allow students to begin working much more independently.  I do not give them specific assignments unless they ask.  At this level, I’m interested in students pursuing their own interests in terms of materials, processes and conceptual development.  In August, I told my students to share their ideas and to get started.  Typically, a student in that class will do some experimentation and take a good chunk of the semester to complete their first project.  Then they’ll smell the end of the semester coming and they’ll rush to complete one or two more projects.  

When these students shared their ideas, they were all at different places with different interests.  I love taking an individual approach in the studio, so this was fine with me.  One student in this class, we’ll call her “Elena”*, showed me a rough sketch of a full body self-portrait and told me she wanted to learn how to make it out of steel.  This was a good challenge for her and it was going to push the skills she had previously developed.  However, the idea she explained was probably too difficult for her to pull off with the complex form she drew.  

In my teaching brain, I’m always trying to think a few weeks ahead.  I could easily imagine her starting this project, realizing it was not really possible to complete and then shifting it into something else that could also be a good experience and produce a good product.  I saw a few options in my head and quickly decided to greenlight the project idea.  She smiled, went away and got started.  

Weeks went by and the sculpture developed slowly.  I’m impatient.  I am sort of notorious for checking in on students by yelling at them to work more and spend more time in the studio.  I can usually hear the eye rolls as I shout over the studio noise.  This particular student is pretty sassy and independent.  She would just look at me, smile and say, “I know, I know.”  After another couple of weeks and a lot of hours on her part, the outline of the form was complete and she had started filling in the surface of the form with lots of steel lines.  

Essentially, she was creating mid-lines on all of her body parts and using lots of closely spaced steel lines to imply the surface of skin.  Not only was it extremely difficult to get the mid-lines accurate, but it was almost mind-numbing to think about filling in all those tiny lines.  Each tiny line had to be bent into a complex curve and fit her body exactly.  Each line took a long time but she was rising to the challenge.

The actual Elena bending steel with Sharpie lines drawn on her skin

More weeks ticked by.  Though she didn’t have a lot completed, what she had was looking so good that I didn’t want to steer her in a different direction.  In addition to being pretty sassy, she’s also pretty stubborn so she probably wouldn’t have quit if I told her to.  Looking ahead, I started to wonder if she would be able to finish the project by the end of the semester.  When I hinted at this, she bucked.  “It will be finished!”  I backed off.  If she did finish it, the project would likely be so good that it would easily account for a semester of studio and class hours.

Each December we get a cool opportunity through a regional art museum in North Carolina that allows faculty members to choose a student’s work to pair with their own work and enter into a juried exhibit.  The exhibit highlights the power of mentorship and focuses on the student-teacher relationship.  In the past, I’ve selected students who made great work and could benefit from the mental boost of being chosen.  It’s a pretty competitive exhibit that features some of the biggest art department names in the country.  This year I started thinking ahead to this exhibit and considering who I might ask.  When Elena popped up in my final considerations, I saw another opportunity wrapped in this one.  

If I could get Elena to agree to enter the exhibit, she would have to be finished by Dec 6 to meet the deadline.  It wasn’t super possible in my head, but there was a chance.  This would get her project finished by the end of the semester.  The risk was that she could also get frustrated by the almost impossible challenge and give up.  

Still, there was another issue to conquer.  I would need to make something new to enter with her project.  I usually enter a steel sculpture of mine and choose a sculpture from a student.  So much of this semester had involved Elena and I looking closely at a handful of reference photos she was using to create her sculpture.  So closely that we knew how far her ears were from the mid-point of her skull and how thick each toe was.  Looking at these details was less like looking at a human form and more like analyzing an image like a blueprint.  

One morning, I was running in the dark at 6:00 am and the idea came to me.  I could draw Elena using one of her reference photos.  For months, I had been wanting to use a person I knew for the subject of one of my drawings.  I wanted to use a particular pose and use them as the shape of the wood I draw on.  Then I would keep parts of their portrait and add other imagery to create the narrative.  Asking someone I knew if I could draw them seemed like a huge thing to me, but here was an opportunity.  I just had no idea if she would agree to any of it.  

Several hours later, Elena was sitting in my office with a few other students.  This happens a few mornings each week.  My office is a bit of a gathering place where I want students to feel comfortable.  The project came up and I told Elena about the opportunity and my crazy idea.  She smiled, but that didn’t tell me anything.  Sometimes she smiles when she’s about to tell you to go jump off a cliff.  Sometimes she smiles when she’s uncomfortable and doesn’t know how to tell you to jump off a cliff in a nice way.  Sometimes she probably also smiles because she’s happy.  I just never know.  

She thought about it for a bit before saying something that knocked me back on my heels a little.  She had recently listened to an artist talk I gave where I happened to mention that I was hoping to get up the courage to ask people I knew if I could draw them in the near future.  I barely remember saying it as I talked about my latest drawings of random internet strangers, but she smiled and said, “Well, yeah, we should do it.  You were just talking about how you wanted to draw people you know and how that would be a new challenge.”

So we agreed to the challenge.  She would have about a week and a half to finish about 70% of her sculpture.  I would have the same time to start and finish a new drawing that scared the heck out of me. 

It was best for me to not think about it and just get started.  I spent that afternoon cutting out the wood and preparing it for drawing.  As I traced and cut the wood in the studio, Elena was on the other side of the room bending steel.  

Thanksgiving Break gave me a lot of hours to dedicate to the drawing.  Since family dinners and events do not happen in the Sculpture Studio, Elena did not make as much progress over the break.  When she returned, she was focused and basically lived in the studio.  As the days went by, I finished the drawing and she worked even more furiously on her sculpture.  

The deadline for her to finish her sculpture was Saturday, Dec 6.  When I left campus on the night of Thursday, Dec 4, she had clear instructions and a plan for her weekend.  She would finish the sculpture, clean it, document it with photos and email those photos to me by midnight Dec 6.  When I looked in my teacher crystal ball, I wasn’t sure she would finish it all on time.  I could see many scenarios where she became too exhausted and had to stop working.  I could also see many scenarios where she would run into problems she didn’t know how to solve and forward motion would come to a halt.  When I left on Thursday night, I told her to let me know if she needed me to come back to help her on Friday.  I meant it, but I knew as I said it what the smile on her face meant that time.  She said “OK” but her smile said, “I don’t ask for help, I can do it on my own, thanks.”

Most of Friday, Dec 5, I was in Columbia, about 1.5 hours away from the Sculpture Studio.  I got a couple of updates and questions from Elena.  Another student we’ll call “Jenna” was working to finish a sculpture in the studio and she was also acting as Elena’s helper and hype-man.  Jenna provided her own updates.  When I was leaving Columbia in the mid-afternoon, Elena texted that she was getting frustrated.  I asked if she wanted me to come to the studio and she replied “Yes”.  When a stubborn, independent student asks for help, you don’t question it, you just drive to campus.  

The funny thing is, Elena knew what was wrong with the sculpture and also knew what she needed to do to fix it.  I was able to get some supplies for Jenna and spend a few hours giving moral support to Elena before leaving them both working in the studio.  I told Elena I would come back on Saturday if needed.  She smiled.  

Saturday afternoon, I decided not to ask if they wanted me to come to the studio.  I just told them.  They let me pick up a pizza and when I arrived, I saw that Elena had solved some big problems and made significant progress.  I looked at all the spots she had left to fill in and started doing the math.  It was going to be pushing it to finish, but it was possible.  Elena kept smiling but it was obvious that the multiple 12+ hour studio days in a row were catching up with her.  She was exhausted and her knees were killing her from getting on the floor and standing back up so many times.  Still, she had a challenge to meet.  She wouldn’t stop.

Elena working in the final hours

During the afternoon, I cut out a new piece of wood for an upcoming drawing and got it prepped.  I annoyed Jenna and took care of a few other things left undone from the previous week.  I peppered in some encouragement to Elena and tried to stay out of her way.  Time raced by and the sun set so fast that we missed the cool view from the studio loading dock.  Before we knew it, Elena was putting on the last few steel lines and Jenna and I were prepping the documentation area to take some photos.  

As Elena tuned off the welder, we celebrated with some cheers and quickly grabbed the sculpture and carried it off to the documentation wall.  A few minutes later, I was dropping the photos in the juried exhibit entry and tapping “send”.  One of Elena’s favorite things to say is, “Oh my lanta!” as an exclamation of surprise, disgust, disbelief or frustration.  I think I heard her say it a hundred times this weekend.  When I asked what she wanted the title to be, the answer seemed obvious.  

At 7:00 pm on Saturday, Dec 6, the project was finished and we had entered the exhibit.  Both of us had found an artistic challenge and both of us rose to meet that challenge.

The finished sculpture.  A self portrait in steel.

Should I have waved Elena off of the project months ago and provided different material and process experiences for her this semester?  A lot of teachers would have.  Should I have been honest with her in August and told her it probably wasn’t possible for her to complete her idea in the time we had?  Many teachers would.

I’m learning that if you don’t tell students things are impossible, they’ll actually do them.  I’m learning that sometimes Elena’s smile means you should go jump off a cliff and sometimes it means “thank you”.  I’m also learning that sometimes a student can challenge you as much as you challenge them.  

Two Elenas.  Both works of art together.

Now to get Jenna to finish her sculpture!

*Elena approved this post.  Jenna did not.

sand sculpture 2021

This year we were lucky to be approved to travel in-state for the Sand Sculpture class.  This class is one of my favorites to teach for a lot of reasons.  Of course, it's great to teach class on the beach and it's really great to teach something you enjoy.  I also love teaching the class because it brings so much joy to our neighboring beach-goers.  And if I'm honest, one of the reasons I love teaching this class is because of the cool connections I get to make with students.

The day after graduation, we packed our cars and headed to the SC coast, driving in the cool rain all the way there.  It was unseasonably cool.  The rain had eased up by the time we arrived, but there was still a bit of a drizzle as we met on the sand for our first class project.

That project went pretty well but everyone was very, very cold.  Most of us had numb fingers and toes and after a few hours of exposure, we were all ready to go warm up.  I had a hot shower before we headed to Habaneros for dinner.

I was up at 6:00 the next morning for my run.  It was about 45 degrees but the sky was clearing and it was looking like it would be a beautiful day.  

By the start of class, the skies were blue and the sun warmed us up a little.  I was so proud of my people all being on time and ready to get to work.

The people on this trip were so great.  I knew most of them already and was lucky to get to know the others pretty quickly.  "Beach McAbee" was in full effect and the McSelfies were good.

I did a lot of marketing to the local news stations and on the very first day, WBTW showed up with a camera and did some interviews.  I volunteered Kennedy to talk and a chunk of her sculpture fell while the dude was there.  She handled it well and was very articulate.

Every year we have some return viewers who happen to vacation during the same days we're in town.  Erica McFarland is a Lander grad from way back (the same year I graduated college) and she finds us each year to say hello.  This year she was wearing her alumni shirt so I got her photo to share with the Alumni Office.  

The first day I made a positive message to hang out for a while.  This one lasted several days until we flattened everything.

My people came out ready to be great and turned out some really strong sand sculptures from the first day.  This was Hannah's bed.

This was Amber's reverse mermaid.

Kennedy's chair that broke in its first form.  Then she very creatively turned it into a "C" and spelled out CHAIR in letters.

Desmond made a giant helmet.

Georgia made a bee hive.

Ashley made a ginormous book with snails.

Asia made a unicorn-elephant.

Dasia had some trouble and decided to turn hers into Eva.

Michael's large octopus.

I promised Dasia lots of ice cream so after our 2nd night dinner, we stopped by Gilbert's.  We were served by another Lander student and enjoyed the ice cream.

Everyone who hears about this class jokes about how it's crazy I get paid to teach a class on the beach and, I mean, I get it.  But it is a week of very hard work for me and for the students.  My days begin at 6:00 am to run and get ready for the 9:00 am start of class.  Class is on the beach from 9:00 to 3:00.  We critique from 3:00 to 4:00, meet for dinner at 5:00, and I'm usually up until midnight sending emails, grading, and preparing for the next day.  Those 6:00 am wake ups are totally worth it though.  It's so beautiful out that early.

Every day through the week the students' muscles get more sore and their bodies get more exhausted.  But every day they're out working hard, trying to top what they did the day before.

There's Taylor spraying her sand with water.

And Ashley sculpting her brain.  The brain broke late in the day and she was given the chance to make something better.  She wisely added a bunch of eyeballs coming out the the brain.

Georgia worked hard and made some fruit with a positive message.

And after working hard all day, it's important to play just as hard.  I brought out the surfboard and offered to let students give it a try.  No one had ever surfed before and Georgia and Kennedy were not afraid to give it a try even with some very rough seas.

Kennedy doesn't always trust me fully but I did keep her alive during her surfing lesson.

We have another annual friend named Denise who sends us photos every year taken from her balcony.  This was the start of the surf lesson.

And this is Kennedy taking off on a wave.

One of the running jokes was that I wasn't much of a planner.  As the only "responsible adult" on the trip it was my job to make sure we didn't die, didn't run out of money, made it to all the things on time, and that we actually learned some stuff along the way.  In my 5th year of teaching this class, I have the gist of things but I'm very flexible with the details.  We saw the opportunity to have a different kind of dinner by ordering casseroles and having a poolside picnic.  I figured out what dishes would make everyone happy, ordered by the deadline and drove to pick up everything we'd need for a cool picnic.  The students were expecting to eat when I returned but instead they got a text that said "unexpected wrinkle.  the food is frozen"  Yeah, I'm not ready to take the heat for that one.  I thought that ordering by the deadline gave them time to thaw and heat the food for you.  I was wrong.  Those puppies were frozen solid.  Luckily one of our rooms had an oven so Chef McAbee went into action.  Just like when a sand sculpture breaks, we figure out how to solve the problem.  An hour and a half later, we all enjoyed a fun hot meal by the pool.  Problem solved.

The next morning we were back at it.  The best way to work out those sore muscles is to keep working!

Every day posed a new challenge.  Students responded to the previous day's feedback and tried new things.  This day Kennedy went big.

And so did Amber!

Amber sketching in her sculpture.

And Kennedy putting the finishing touches on her almost actual sized whale.

Here's something that makes me very happy:  Georgia also decided to go very large. She made a huge pile of sand and packed it and watered it just like she was taught.  She worked all morning on piling up and packing sand.  Then she started carving her forms.  She made a space rocket taking off over a huge half moon.  It was splendid and she was feeling very good about it.  A stranger came over and took a photo of it and immediately the whole right side collapsed.  There was no saving the rocket.  I gave her a moment to be angry and then I gave her the speech about just using the remaining parts as a starting point and making something new out of it.  

She got back to it very quickly.  She repaired the broken side, assessed what she had left, and decided on a new plan to use those forms.  She turned this...

...into this.  The rocket taking off became a bunch of balloons.  Very smart, very determined, very good problem solving skills.

Meanwhile Ashley was totally vibing with the sand.  This was her alligator head.

Taylor got a bit graphic designy with some text.

After class Amber felt froggy and did a little surfing.

Dasia finished up her hippo.

And Taylor gave surfing a try.

This was a special day because I got to introduce everyone to The Grilled Cheese and Crabcake Company.  They were all pretty skeptical of going to a grilled cheese place but as soon as the food touched their mouths, they were all believers.  It did not disappoint.  We may have even picked up lunch from there the following day.

After dinner we headed to Gilligan's Island for some very competitive mini-golf.

Dasia and Michael fought all week.  From the moment they got in my car until the moment we dropped Michael off, they were at each other's throats.  They're the best of friends and they never stop taking shots at each other.  I got to observe their mini-golf battle from the next group back.  It was hilarious.

These ladies were the four amigas all week.

I love Asia.

In fact, I might love all these people.  And doughnuts.

I also love running on the beach at sunrise.

On Sunday we spent several hours at Brookgreen Gardens.  We learned a bit about Anna Hyatt Huntington and what a cool sculptor she was.

And while many of these images show us without masks because we were outside most of the week, we did follow guidelines while inside.  We wanted to make sure we kept everyone safe.

Though they knew me to not be a planner, it was funny how trusting they still were.  As we walked through the gardens and I led them past the wall and into the old rice swamp, no one really questioned my leadership.  Even when we passed the signs about alligators and venomous snakes.

I'm pretty sure we started with 11 people.  Maybe it's best not to count.

They did the labyrinth and met in the center for a quick cult meeting.  They're all so funny.  They made this trip so much fun.

 

We found this cool rendering of me with my wolf parents.

Then there was the "zoo".  Most of the animals were missing in action but we did find this cool caged Kennedy.  We fed her grilled cheese.  

We walked the entire "zoo" and decided that the walk would be worth it if we got to go in the butterfly house.  After we took a butterfly photo we discovered the butterfly house was locked and you needed a ticket to get in.  Bummer.  What could we do that would heal our disappointment?

Racing each other in go carts would probably do it.

We spent a few hours at the Myrtle Beach Grand Prix and I showed everyone how to drive aggressively.  

This was fun because we all got to "race" each other but the carts all go the same speed (unless you get stuck with the crappy one) and it's really hard to pass unless someone is intentionally going slow. 

I still let them pretend to be winners for the photo.  

And then we were right back at it.

Kennedy's new challenge was to carve the school mascot.

Asia made a heart.

Hannah made our department logo.

And since it was Monday, I made a unicorn butt.

With "Thank You" on the back.

Fun story:  Two young children, maybe around 8 years old talked with us and wanted to make their own sculpture out of sand.  I left them and forgot about them as I made my rounds giving feedback.  When I returned they were gone but they had left their sculpture among our sculptures on the beach.  They made a sand penis.  I was pretty surprised but with a couple of slices with a shovel I was able to turn it into a rocketship.  Thanks guys.

After the giant break of her sculpture the day before, Georgia worked very differently and went flat.  She made a logo first and then when she was finished, she started this new and very interesting experiment.

One of the most important traditions of the trip is a visit to Painter's Ice Cream to get fun temporary tattoos.  This year they had glitter fairy tattoos and we were thrilled to get them.  Thanks to Kennedy for finding a nice gentleman to take this photo for us.

The next morning I got some sunrise photos with the sculptures.  There were two ladies out in front of the sculptures going live with some sort of broadcast.  

I got this one to send to the hotel for their hospitality toward us each year.  I also got to see a fresh sea turtle nest.

Then it was time for the Sand Sculpture Deathmatch.  We divided up into two teams...

...and worked hard all day making sculptures.

Team A made a giant koi fish with lily pads.

The scales were a nice touch.

Team B made a giant octopus.

With shells and seaweed for details.

We let our beach neighbors decide the winning sculpture by votes.  They were all so eager to vote and they really got into it this year.  We had over 40 strangers vote.  Almost every voter told me that both were deserving of the victory.  The octopus finally won when all the votes were cast.

This group wasn't ready to end their beach time.

After dinner we had our annual awards ceremony in the Spirit Room.  I'd love to tell you about it but it's a tradition shrouded in secrecy.  

On our final morning I saw my heron friend for the second time on my run.

We loaded up the cars and grabbed a breakfast at Beach Burgers and BBQ before saying goodbye to Amber and hitting the road.

After a while on the road, we exited in Bishopville and made a visit to Pearl Fryar's Topiary Garden.  

I had heard that Pearl wasn't able to maintain the gardens as he had in the past but I was pleased to find most of the garden in good condition.  We walked the grounds and marveled at his living sculptures.  Then we tried without success to pet a dog.  The dog owner grabbed the dog and told us that if we wanted to talk with Pearl he was at the front door waiting on us.

This was such a great opportunity for my students and I'm so happy we got to talk with him and hear a few stories.  He's so cool.

Sadly neither of us were wearing our sculpture uniforms this time.  

After the garden we all sort of split up and made our way home.  After everyone checked in confirming they had arrived home safely, I was able to relax a bit and reflect.  The students made some outstanding work and they shared that work directly with hundreds of viewers each day.  They engaged viewers in conversation about their work and they spoke articulately.  They were kind, respectful, and they followed my one rule all week.  They are such delightful people and I'm lucky I get to teach them.

End notes:

I totally passed Michael AND Kennedy no matter what Kennedy says.  Desmond will never make a grilled cheese sandwich that can compete with the ones at the beach.  Sand sculpture is hard.  Georgia needs Instagram.