Saturday, May 12, 2012

End Of Spring Semester Final - Oh The Horror!!!


I had one of my students in the acrylic painting class I teach at Sacramento City College put together (I didn't have enough time in my schedule to do it myself) my mylar, helium-filled, remote controlled  "Air Swimmer" shark (check out the hilarious clips of it in action on Youtube). She brought it to our final class session of the semester last Friday. She did a beautiful job putting it together and even filled it with helium and provided all the double A batteries! A big, big THANK YOU to Hilary! She and I installed what we thought was the correct amount of ballast for a controlled flight mode but alas, Mr. Shark headed straight up to the ceiling (the ceiling in the art room has got to be at least 35 feet!) and lodged himself amongst the ceiling beams . . . oh the horror! There was absolutely no way to retrieve it.  It will most likely reside up there for several weeks until enough helium is lost to bring it back down. On a lighter note, this disaster state of affair was put aside, and I gave each of my students a one inch by one inch card (cut from a full watercolor painting) to translate in acrylic onto a ten inch by ten inch canvas board. This was their final assignment for the semester, and they all did a fantastic job! When all 20 canvasses were assembled on the studio floor, a bee-a-you-tee-full painting of a rooster was revealed (click on the photo to view it at a larger size). Since this class was taught on Sacramento City College's Davis campus, we  titled it "The Rooster That Devoured Davis". It will be mounted on foam core board and hung in the art studio classroom for future students to admire. The campus authorities will notify me when I can retrieve my air swimmer.

9 comments:

Christie said...

Thanks for another awesome semester David!

RH Carpenter said...

Congratulations on a very successful semester (judging from the work produced)! Sorry about your helium buddy - I'm sure he'll be fine and perhaps have an interesting view from up high for a while!

Meera Rao said...

I checked out You tube --those air swimmers are cool :) too bad yours got lodged in the ceiling --may be he will come down and start swimming around soon :) Great exercise with the squares too!!!

David Lobenberg said...

You are welcomed, Christie. As with the drawing class, it was a pleasure having u as a student. Have a splendiferous summer!

David Lobenberg said...

Rhonda, Yes, my buddy most likely has an excellent view of the classroom, but at some point, he'll wanna return home.

David Lobenberg said...

Meera, I miss him!

debwardart said...

What a clever idea for a collective painting! Too funny about that shark!

David Lobenberg said...

Deb Ward, Too funny about the shark?!! . . . I'm crying over it!! :-)

David Lobenberg said...
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