In Brenda Christeleit’s Sculpture II class, Easter is kicking off early with Penn-Trafford’s own “peep show” — a marshmallow-filled diorama contest, of course. Students were tasked with placing marshmallow peep birds or bunnies into scenes created using recycled materials.
Christeleit said she was inspired for this lesson by a fellow art teacher in Brook County, West Virginia who has about 800 peep show entries a year.
“It’s a big thing,” Christeleit noted. “It’s an annual event down there.”
Sculptures were constructed utilizing materials that would have otherwise been discarded. For example, junior Madison Hagan’s ferris wheel in her “Peep Fair” was created with plastic straws.
Sophomore Riley Joyce created her epic fight scene diorama using keyboard keys and scrabble pieces.
Other elements of art were incorporated into the sculptures as well.
“I just put two [pillars] and made the ones nearest to the peep on the ground taller to show the dimension,” Joyce explained.
Not only does this lesson unleash students’ creativity, but also allows them to make critical decisions when narrowing down a theme.
“I had a bunch of ideas,” Joyce said, “but I settled on one that was an action scene because it would be easiest for me to interpret into box form with the peeps.”
Voting for the contest took place in the downstairs fishbowl and was open to every student and teacher who could make it. Dioramas were judged based on three factors: creativity, craftsmanship, and detail.
The Sculpture II students spent weeks preparing for the event, focusing on each minute detail.
In preparation, Christeleit explained that “[students] colored plans, they used model magic to make tiny little details, and they thought about what their culture influences were.”
After this lesson wraps up, Sculpture II students will switch their focus to the final lesson of the year: cubism. Recycling will be utilized again for the next project, wherein students will take apart and resemble unusable violins.