Constructing drawings
 When some people look at construction sites, they see only garish orange fencing, scaffolding and obscured views. But students in the Upper School drawing and design course were asked to see something else: fodder for the imagination. Art teacher Duane Neil challenged them to create, based on Chapin’s ongoing renovation and expansion, drawings that would unite photographs, pencil sketches and architectural blueprints into a harmonious whole.
“We started by sketching small portions of the construction from outside,” one student recalled, describing her process. “I focused on the underside of the scaffolding and the steel beams,” she added, “but another student focused on graffiti, for example.”
The girls then took digital photographs of the construction site and had the option of looking at the architect’s blueprints. They examined those elements alongside their sketches as they worked toward a final drawing.
Having three materials to draw from, and a choice of which parts of the site to train their eyes on, meant that the girls could represent the construction from multiple perspectives. Many of the drawings are Cubist in their approach to space, displaying several planes and angles simultaneously. Windows are a common motif in the finished works, as is a “Do Not Enter” sign — evidence, perhaps, of the artists’ desire to see parts of the construction site that lie beyond where their eyes could take them.
“It was a really fun project,” one student said. “But connecting all the elements at the end was tough,” she added. Tough, but appropriate. The students are learning that art, like the construction taking place around them, requires intense observation and coordination before it can be made beautiful.
Click here to see a photo gallery of the drawings. |
