Hazelwood West Middle School Students Create
Ornaments for National Christmas Tree Display
Art students at Hazelwood West Middle School created ornaments for Missouri's tree that is part of 2010 National Christmas Tree display at the Presidents Park in Washington, DC.
The 87th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony was held Dec. 9, and the trees will remain on display through Jan. 1. This year, one main tree is on display in the White House Visitors' Center with 54 smaller trees arranged in a circle, one for each state and U.S. territory. The display is organized by the National Park Foundation.
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Michelle "Mike" Ochonicky holds a Missouri ornament created by Hazelwood West Middle School students. |
Students in Elaine Eversgerd's art classes were invited by Gov. Jay Nixon's office earlier this year to create an ornament design representing Missouri.
The featured local artist is Best of Missouri Hands Director Michelle "Mike" Ochonicky, an award-winning artist whose work includes murals, drawings, illustrations, sculpture and photography. The ornament design features clay versions of the state bird, the eastern bluebird.
The ornaments had many restrictions in order to make it to the White House. They had to be weatherproof, a certain weight and size, represent the state of Missouri, and represent Missouri winters.
In order to accomplish these parameters, the six-inch diameter ornaments were hand-sculpted and painted with Missouri’s state bird. Ice crystals were added to symbolize the icy Missouri winters, and even most of the letters of the word Missouri were utilized. The “M” boasts a music note to honor the state’s musical heritage, the first “I” is dotted with the state flower – the hawthorn blossom, the “SS” turn into rivers, while the last “I” is dotted by the blossom of our state tree—the Dogwood.
Lots of hard work and determination went into the making of the ornaments. Overall, around 100 students in grades 6, 7 and 8 contributed to the project.
Ochonicky and Eversgerd worked together to incorporate this project into the students' coursework. Eversgerd broke the project into three steps -- creation, painting and packaging. Ochonicky instructed students how to take chunks of soft, easy-to-mold clay and crush the pieces to extract any air. Then they began to shape them into birds.
After students shaped the clay into birds, Eversgerd and Ochonicky recommended detail steps, such as using fingers to make indentations for eye sockets and taking a scissor end or a pencil tip to add wing suggestions and tail feathers.
Student challenges included remembering to smooth out any cracks in the clay before the birds dried and to remember that sculptures are three-dimensional so they need to have a flat bottom to rest properly in the globes. Students also had to make sure the birds fit into the globes. If they were too large, students had to rework them.
"This is a real thrill," Ochonicky said. "There's only one artist selected and one school selected per state. The ornament has to represent the state and only one design is selected."
For more information, contact Steve Williams, fine arts consultant, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.