Almost Impossible to Spear It

Laura Swan, Deborah Lukasik and Southampton Intermediate School  

Southampton, NY

To generate ideas, we discussed the current situation in Afghanistan and began to consider how it would feel to live there everyday amidst the war, what it would look like, sound like, smell like. This conversation was the springboard for our work, evoking a sense of empathy in the students and hoping to convey that with the piece and make their feelings somewhat contagious. Students were able to identify with the idea that families, like their own, were being affected by the war in their daily lives. In addition to color and imagery, we then focused on writing some poetry, prose or sharing a quote that reflected our voice. After sketching and talking about how to communicate our ideas we came up with the concept: the central shape is reminiscent of an eye, (Eyes Wide Open) which is looking outward and inward symbolizing both awareness and introspection. 

Biography:  

Swan and Lukasik work with L'atelier 5, a family of artists offereing fine arts, crafts and ceramics classes and camps supervised by state certifed teachers for artists of all ages.