Tuesday, May. 06, 2008
Art students beautify campus with fountain
Artist-in-resident teaches group how to create mosaic facades
By Minerva Perez / mperez@losbanosenterprise.com
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ReprintLos Baños High School art teachers, Sharon Caredio and Laura Corben, said they barely noticed the water fountain right outside the teacher's lounge...until they set their sights on it for a project.
All that was needed was a little outside help from a colleague and some very talented students, they said.
Art students, teachers and the high school's first artist in residence, Ann Hubbird, livened up the east wing of the campus by creating a mosaic facade over an existing water fountain.
"I would look out the window and all I would see were students," Caredio said adding the new look of the fountain has transformed the area.
Nestled outside the teacher's lounge in the middle of a group of classrooms, the mosaic water fountain features bright blue and green tiles, vivid yellows and hints of purple that come together to form an underwater scene.
"We wanted to do something that relates to water," Hubbird said. "We just brainstormed about how water feels, what you do in water."
A student, Joel August, eventually came up with a fish-tank design that everyone agreed with and set about creating with each of the eight students involved in the project adding their own touch.
"Some people have really different strengths," Hubbird said. "Some are good at sketching, others at (building)."
For instance, the purple octopus wasn't coming out right in the sketches until student Sierrah Garcia took over it and drew out a creature that wraps itself around two faces of the fountain.
The entire project from sketches to mounting it on the actual fountain took a little more than a week.
Caredio said if it wasn't for Hubbird, the mosaic would have taken longer.
An Oregon-based artist, Hubbird specializes in mosaic and clay. She also happens to be good friends with Corben and was invited by her to come down to Los Baños and teach a group of selected students how to make mosaics.
After a quick tutorial, Hubbird and her new students went to work on the fountain. She said the students caught on quick and was impressed by their work ethic and their artistic abilities.
Student Zachary Johnson said he likes the finished product and the whole experience making it.
"It was a lot of work, cutting the tile," he said.
His other classmates said they thought breaking the tile was the best part.
As her residency ended Hubbird made sure to leave instructions on how to create mosaics for Caredio and Corben so they can beautify the rest of the 11 water fountains on campus.
She also left behind a group of students and teachers with a heightened passion for art.
"If it had not been for the artist, this would have operated much slower," Caredio said.
Enterprise reporter Minerva Perez can be reached by phone at (209)388-6565 or by e-mail at mperez@losbanosenterprise.com