September 1, 2004
Clay Stomp feet-on artwork
Art Center offers Clay Stomp class for 20 young artists
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Donning clay socks and gloves, more than 20 youngster coated themselves with clay Saturday morning at the Clay Stomp class.
Held at the Art Center, the class first had students mixing up the clay outside on the lawn in a child's plastic swimming pool. Instructor Suzie Wilson poured in the powder mix, added water and invited kids to step in, sans footgear. As they tromped and tramped, churning the mixture with enthusiastic kid power, the future artworks congealed into a workable consistency.
Making clay from scratch gave the attendees a charge.
"It was squooshy, it felt like you were wearing clay socks," said Alex Pear, 10, from New York City.
Paige Granger, 8, had more summery associations with the experience.
"It felt like I was stepping into wet sand," she noted.
Wilson, who is executive director of the Art Center, then led the kids indoors to the classroom. She doled out a glob of clay to each participant and told them to find what speaks to them, what the clay wanted them to make.
Donuts, a worm, a lighthouse, a dragon and a sphinx ensued as the kids worked with their clay, in the process coating their hands with it.
"I just like everything about working with clay, actually I've done it before," said Nina Barraco, 11, the creator of the sphinx. "My mom and I do it and when I was little we used to go to classes."
Chris Thole attended the class with his son, Reagan, 8. The Clarkston resident and his family were vacationing in the area over the weekend and decided to create their own art in the process.
"It just sounded neat," said Thole, who sculpted a puffer fish from his clay. "I saw this on a Traverse City website and decided to do this in the morning."
The sculptures need to air dry for a few days, Wilson told the class, then they can be painted.
"It is such a fun medium to work with and any exposure to clay is great for kids," said Wilson, who has been executive director of the Art Center since April.
Adding that the clay was watery, Wilson believed that she added a little too much moisture. The kids had fun regardless.
"We discussed a couple of techniques for sculpting but the clay wasn't working with us today," she said. "One little girl crafted this little ballerina, it just blew me away. That's the big positive coming out of these classes, it is just amazing what they create."
The Clay Stomp is the third in a series of hands-on classes this summer offered by the Art Center. The first was Art Yoga, geared to teen-agers, and the second was a toddler safety class.
"We are targeting specific age groups with these classes," Wilson said. "It is really fun to have hands-on activities for the kids. Like the yoga class, they did yoga then came to the Art Center and drew a body figure and transposed it onto canvas."
Wilson, who has a background in interdisciplinary studies, said that the Art Center and its board are turning to the public for ideas.
"We're working with a new board and just hoping to bring in new things for children's programming and workshops," she said. "We're just listening to the public, that's the reason we're here."
Wilson also plans to have specific workshops for kids on gifts near the holidays featuring such topics as making paper or ornaments.
"We've also had a lot of calls from parents with kids ages 8-14 asking for not necessarily arts and crafts, but teaching the elements of design and drawing," she said. "We're gearing something for kids who have the patience and desire to sit for a long time and learn to draw and improve their hand eye coordination."