Ceramics classes start their “One-Word Tile” project
This new project helps students express themselves through art
November 7, 2019
The start of the second quarter marks the beginning of “One-Word Tile” projects for ceramics students. The project consists of students choosing a meaningful word and creating a clay tile masterpiece displaying it.
Sophomore Carly Knight describes the project as very artist-led, as it gives her room to express herself as an artist.
“I have enjoyed this project because it is very free-flowing and you can interpret this assignment in many different ways, it doesn’t have a strict rubric and it allows the artist to do what they want to,” Knight said.
Knight views the word she chose as a goal she’s setting for herself.
“[The word is] kind of a New Year’s resolution where you pick a word to set the tone for the year to motivate and inspire you,” Knight said.
According to senior Callie Roberts, the students were told to choose a word that reflected their own personal goals.
“I chose the word peace, mostly because we were told to pick something that embodied our goals, and I get stressed out a lot so peace is something that’s important to me,” Roberts said.
Roberts says the meaning behind the project is to get students thinking about what they value.
“I think it’s mostly to get us thinking about our goals for ourselves and what we value,” Roberts said.
Knight says that taking an art class gives her a chance to branch out and express herself differently than she does in other classes.
“I wanted to be creative, whereas in normal classes like math you can’t be as creative. I like exploring my creative side so art classes are good for me,” Knight said.
According to art teacher Erica Crist, she has seen a wide variety of ideas from her students.
“It’s been fun to see the wide range of ideas students have developed. We haven’t started making the tiles yet, so I’m excited to see the results,” Crist said.
One word goal setting is an up and coming trend and the tiles are a way to incorporate goal-setting into an art class says Crist.
“One-word goal setting is a semi-recent trend that people use to guide their goal setting. You choose one word to help you set and focus on your goals. One word is easy to remember, and you can create reminders for yourself by putting your word on a sticky note and hanging it on your bathroom mirror, writing the word on the front of your planner, making a collage of your word or, like we’re doing in class, create a tile that has your word or images related to your word on it,” Crist said.
The tiles won’t be completed for a few more class periods, so make sure to go check them out once the students are done creating their personal projects.
