Last month I received an email from student teacher, Jarrett Bardal who was working at Isabel F. Cox School in Redcliff, Alberta. As part of his practicum he was tasked with coming up with a project that would involve all of the 300+ students and staff members at the school. Jarrett's idea was to blow up an image that captured the essence of Redcliff, cut it into squares, and then have each student and staff member artistically recreate their own square for a giant collage.
Jarrett's search for images lead him to my site and an image that I shot of the Redcliff water tower in 2012. He explained his idea to me, and in addition to donating my image for the project, I was genuinely excited to see how it would all turn out. Isabel F. Cox is a K-3 school, and just yesterday I finally got to see the result of everyone's work.
Made up of over 300+ squares from the students and staff, the final piece is a colourful mosaic rich in detail. Knowing that so many hands were involved in bringing the interpretation to life, I found myself immediately drawn to each of the little squares. From the youngest kids who coloured squares for the sky to the girders and rivets done by the later grades, the resulting artwork is a captivating depiction of one of the community's landmarks - and a complete reinvention of my photograph.
I want to thank Jarrett Bardal for choosing my photograph for his project, and also congratulate all of the students and staff at Isabel F. Cox School in Redcliff for their beautiful work. Creativity inspires creativity, and this project brought that idea full circle for me. I'm proud to know that this will be hanging in the school for years to come.
On the drive between Medicine Hat, Alberta and Regina, Saskatchewan along the Trans-Canada Highway I made a point of stopping to explore. In addition to an abandoned home and a number of wooden grain elevators, there was a lot of beauty in these rustic scenes.
Last spring I did a video and several photo shoots while Medalta and the artists in residence hosted a 3D ceramic printer for several weeks. Afterwards, I happily agreed to have some of my images published along with an article that Aaron Nelson wrote about the experience in the spring/summer 2014 issue of Studio Magazine.
The publication has now been released so I can finally share the article here. Greg Pugh and I wheeled that heavy 3D printer into the old factory at Medalta so that I could get that main shot they used in this article - just one more reason it was worth it.
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