Students in Mr. Martin's 3-D Design class created conceptual art works for display in public spaces. Collaborative groups researched locations and materials and then created written and drawn proposals for site-specific works. All materials used in the works were required to be available for free, already owned by the art department or the artist, or donated- no new purchases were allowed. The works were constructed and installed around the high school and will be on display for two weeks. At the end of the two week exhibition, the works will be removed and at least 90% of the materials will be reused or recycled.
Students in Mr. Martin's 3-D Design class created conceptual art works for display in public spaces. Collaborative groups researched locations and materials and then created written and drawn proposals for site-specific works. All materials used in the works were required to be available for free, already owned by the art department or the artist, or donated- no new purchases were allowed. The works were constructed and installed around the high school and will be on display for two weeks. At the end of the two week exhibition, the works will be removed and at least 90% of the materials will be reused or recycled. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before…” From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe Do you want to see something scary? 2005 SASHS graduate Riley Cameron sure hopes so! Cameron has been creating haunted attractions and things macabre as long as he can remember, and he’s made a business out of his passion. In 2014, his Chambersburg-area business, Nevermore Productions, will celebrate its 5th year of creating unique, frightening works of sculpture and other attractions for “haunts” all over the world. This is Cameron’s busiest time of year, but he kindly took a few minutes to sit down and answer some interview questions for the art department’s Alumni Showcase. How long have you been doing things related to horror? Ever since I was old enough to walk. My parents always carved pumpkins with me, made costumes, decorated the house, had Halloween parties, etc. Halloween was a big deal for us and there were always plenty of opportunities for creativity Who or what do you count as a major influence? I’ve always have been intrigued by Poe's work. (It is) a perfect juxtaposition of beauty and elegance with dark and gruesome… Very raw. Where did you go to school? Shippensburg University. I graduated in 2009 with Bachelor of Fine Art. How did you learn about special effects make up and processes? I use a lot of my classical background...sketching, sculpting, etc., that I learned in high school and college, but the majority of the special effects techniques were largely self-taught. There is a wealth of information on the Internet and I would spend hours researching and learning, joining forums to talk with others in the business, looking at and studying other companies and the props that they produce and most importantly, taking the skills I learned and trying them out for myself. That’s the best way for me to learn: getting my hands dirty and trying a new skill. Whether it’s making molds, engineering animatronics, programming the animation, etc ., it’s best to just jump right in and give it a shot. Tell us about your business and projects (2014)...will be my 5th year owning my company. We produce everything from large scale animatronic monsters, set pieces, static props, costumes, and complete haunted attractions. There is a main tradeshow we go to in March of each year where almost all of the haunted houses in the country, and some even out of the country, attend. We set up detailed booths to display our new products and set pieces, interact with the customers, and take orders. During the summer months we work as a production company, filling orders which could range anywhere to one or two items to 50 or more. Occasionally we will get requests for custom work where we sit down with the client, discuss ideas, I usually do some concept sketching to make sure we are on the same page, agree on a price and go to work creating whatever the client wants. Usually each year there are one or two large scale projects that a client will commission us to create an entire walkthrough attraction or part of an attraction. For whom have you done work? Our clients come from all over the world, ranging from small yard displays to major theme parks... Busch Gardens, Cedar Point, Six Flags to name a few. Field of Screams, Jason’s Woods and the Bates Motel are some of the more local haunted houses… What is the most interesting work you've done? Last year I was asked to be a part of a major project by another company, (Eerie Productions), building and installing a haunted house in Taiwan. We worked for 2 months practically non-stop creating a top of the line, super realistic, super high tech haunted house. Then we tore it down, shipped it overseas and then went to Taiwan for a month to install it at one of their major theme parks. What do you hope people take away from your work? I hope people look at my work and see how far the haunted house industry has come from its humble beginnings to a legitimate industry pushing the limits with realism and blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. I strive to not just imitate reality, but create it. Our National Art Honor Society members are students of many talents! The SASHS Drama Club's production of Arsenic And Old Lace, the classic comic farce about two kindly spinsters who also happen to be serial killers, has a definite artistic bent! Sets were designed by art teacher Chris Martin and were built and painted with the assistance of National Art Honor Society students Courtney Singley, Adeline Landi, and Trent Eyer. Emily McMichael, NAHS president, is also the vice president of the Drama Club and served as the student director and lead painter on Arsenic And Old Lace. SEE THE PLAY THIS SATURDAY (11/2) AT 7:00 P.M., and THIS SUNDAY (11/3) AT 2:00 P.M. Tickets are available at the door and are $7 for adults and $5 for students. What do the Shippensburg School District and the X-Box One have in common? They both showcase the design work of Rita Yu. You’ve probably seen Rita’s work if you’ve attended an event at the high school auditorium. The 2006 SASHS graduate's colored pencil drawing won the Tom Colley Art Award and is displayed in the auditorium lobby. Her self-portrait peers out from a leafy hiding place, a knocked arrow pointing right at the viewer. It’s a surprising and striking image. It’s even more striking if you’ve ever met the artist. Yu has a quiet and humble, almost shy, personality. She’s more likely to let you run a conversation than not and is definitely not about bragging or getting in someone’s face. Not that she couldn’t brag a little, if she wanted… Yu graduated from James Madison University’s Art Department with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design. While there, she racked up a serious list of awards and scholarships including a student Addy award. As impressive as was her work at JMU, it was in graduate school that she really took flight. Yu earned a graduate scholarship to the world-renowned Rochester Institute of Technology to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. While there she studied everything from typography to digital user interface design. She worked on interfaces for iOS apps, designed motion graphics, developed branding, and designed jewelry. She won several awards including the Lella and Massimo Vignelli Award, an award endowed by and named for the legendary designer, Massimo Vignelli, responsible for the classic American Airlines logo, the New York Subway signage system, and other important works. As her graduate thesis, Yu developedTailored Type, a web-based application. An experiment, the concept of Tailored Type was an application to help clothing designers choose type based upon a target audience’s age, gender, and other factors (see it here). With her graduation from R.I.T. looming, Yu began the interview process, hoping to land a job in the highly competitive design industry. In the late spring, she interviewed with several firms, but had no luck. Then she received the call that changed her world. Microsoft was interested in interviewing her for their Interactive Entertainment Business Unit, the division that controls the development of the X-Box. Yu traveled to the company’s Washington state headquarters and underwent a grueling and stressful interview. “It is a little weird to stand up and talk about your work to a bunch of strangers, but I’d been doing it for a long time through school,” she said in a visit to a high school design class in June. “That definitely helped me.” Yu landed the job and moved to Washington in July to start work on the UX (or “user experience) for the new X-Box One system. In an email discussing her upcoming work, she reflected on her parents, who were very worried about her career choice when she first told them about her aspirations. “…My parents are happy with my decision now, thank goodness. They're not too happy that I'll be across the country and are worried that I'll be under a lot of stress, but that's life being a designer almost anywhere.” UPDATE: "Work has been crazy busy and I've been pulling 60–80 hr weeks... but other than that I enjoy it..." wrote Yu in a recent email. Click here to see Rita Yu’s portfolio! |
SASD Art DePARTMENT
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