Students exhibit art at Strathmore

The students in Mrs.Earle’s Ceramics 2 class have received the great opportunity to have their artwork showcased at the Music Center at Strathmore in Rockville, starting in June.

Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved on poles, posts or pillars with symbols or figures.

Students in the ceramics class got this amazing opportunity by entering a contest sponsored by the Strathmore. Through the MCPS website, Mrs.Earle heard about the contest going on.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to get us involved and represent Springbrook,” Mrs.Earle said.

Not only did this bring an amazing opportunity to Springbrook and to the ceramics class, but it also opened doors to the students who want to pursue a career in art because it gives the students exposure to others who will see their art.

“I have students that already included this opportunity on their resumes and it’s a good experience for them to learn how to do this,” Mrs.Earle said.

”Mostly students don’t have this opportunity, this is something only professionals would really do,” Earle added.

Mrs.Earle’s class entered seven totem poles and three got accepted and will be permanently showcased.

“The “Statue of Liberty”, “The Unity” and the “Maryland totem pole” were accepted,”Mrs.Earle said.

Most of the ceramics students spent about a month clearly planning out, drawing and coloring their designs.

“We had to make sure the drawings were very detailed and colored,” Mrs.Earle said.

This was the first year for the contest and more than 20 poles were entered and only the best ones were chosen.

Making the totem poles definitely wasn’t easy. It took a lot of teamwork, dedication and late nights at school.

“To physically make them it took a whole quarter, about a month and a half,” Mrs.Earle said.

Senior Keileen Estrada agrees that it was a very tedious and long process.

“The first time we did it in three weeks,” Estrada said.

Every endeavor like this always has some setbacks. During Spring Break the “Statue of Liberty” totem pole collapsed, but that didn’t keep ceramics students from doing their best.

“It fell apart over night , so we got together during spring break and fixed it in a week and a half,” Carlos Escobar said, a student who was also working on the statue.