Quentin Climer created flowers with tape that was easily moldble into shapes and stretchy in texture. (Photo by Stephanie Spyropoulos)
With various art media displayed throughout the Silver Lake hallways- this week students will observe and participate in a noticeably different method of creativity -in the form of tape art.
Founder of Tape Art Crew Michael Townsend carries over three decades of art experience and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design. Artist Leah Smith and Tape Art instructor also has over a decade in creating public art.
The pair generated inspiration with the SL students during a brief brain storming session prior to the application of the tape on Tuesday.
The students were encouraged to create and envision their story and then pairing up in groups they taped their portions of the story as it would unfold along the bare white wall.
Strictly pictorial each detail of the wall art was made of tape. Flowers, grass, lines both leading and finishing, cat ears, tiger bodies and a story unfolded about within various stages.
The green and blue artistry tape is easily removed and repositionable.
The idea of creating a scene together incorporates everyone. Coming into a space and seeing something new is exciting and when it is removed it will be missed and leaves room for new ideas to spring up, said Smith.
Several students stood on a table and stools to work on the top portions of the mural each had a shared task.
In recognition of March – Youth Arts Month this event was made possible by the generous support of the Kingston, Plympton and Halifax Local Cultural Councils and the SLRSD PTO.
Hannah Close Art teacher at the Silver Lake Regional High School was first introduced to the Tape Art Crew when she attended a professional development workshop in spring 2018. The event was hosted by the Massachusetts Art Education Association MAEA at UMass Dartmouth featuring the Tape Art Crew and led by two of the crew members.
Similar to the students the teachers at the workshop were given a prompt and coaching on how to manipulate the blue and green painter’s tape and all were paired in groups to create a temporary tape art mural.
‘The Tape Art Crew members posed thoughtful questions about imagery, communication and visual problems while we worked. The results were as exciting as they were varied,’ said Close.
Close who also spent class time Tuesday with the Tape Art Crew was excited about the opportunity to bring working artists to SLRHS because of the conceptual thinking, exposure to the media of temporary tape art murals and allowance for her students to develop visual communication skills. Her hope in what the students will gather from the experiences this week is: development of interpersonal and problem solving skills.
‘They work together to create large scale murals that will be shared by the whole school and community,’ said Close.
The Tape Art Crew hails from Rhode Island and has hosted their workshops all over the world. Internationally they have traveled, creating tape murals throughout the US, Hong Kong, Greece, and Tokyo.