Student Pop Art on display in Elkader
Central student artwork is being featured in businesses around Elkader. Seventh and eighth grade Pop Art candy and snack sculptures are on display over the next few weeks at Wilke’s Grocery, The Pit Stop, Conoco, The Pizzeria and The General Store.
In creating the Pop Art selections, students chose a candy or snack item of their choice, measured it and then scaled it to three to five times its original size. Then they created the pieces with cardboard, plastic sacks, tin foil, tape and “whatever else we could get our hands on,” according to art teacher Carlyn Lechtenberg.
After the building was complete, students applied plaster and focused on accurately drawing the candy logo and painting their piece.
Lechtenberg personally reached out to the businesses, which were very willing to work with the students and the school to display the artwork.
“I heard lots of third party validation as I was in the store placing all the sculptures. ‘Ooos and aaahs’ as well as ‘Well, these are so cool’ and ‘Sounds like a fun time in the art room’ and ‘I can’t wait to see the rest’ from customers going through the store and checkout,” Lechtenberg said.
Pop Art, which Lechtenberg described as a “fun, bold, playful art movement from the 1950s that focuses on pop culture,” was a new challenge for the students in taking everyday or common objects such as candy and turning them into art. The project is also cross-curricular, as it ties into math with measuring and scaling the pieces to a larger size.
“I like this topic because it’s very relatable to kids and gets them into their work,” Lechtenberg said.