Perched on a stool in Fae Moeller’s advanced art class at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, Darrian Gunderson, 12, used a large nail to etch an arrowhead design into a 4-by-4-inch acrylic glass plate.
“You have to press really hard. I never realized how hard,” said the seventh-grader, concentrating.
Nearby, Athena Rossi, 12, worked on her etching of a bone spoon.
“I really like the cracks,” she said. “I thought I could pull that off really well with the scratching tool.”
In a project called the Art of Legacy, art students from Jefferson and Vancouver School of Arts and Academics learned about history at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, studied artifacts in the national park’s museum collection and then created art pieces inspired by the artifacts.
Now in its third year, the Art of Legacy project brings together teaching artists, local students and historical artifacts.
It’s the brainchild of Maureen Montague, artist and board member at North Bank Artists. Montague first developed the Art of Legacy program in 2012. The project combines her passions for history and art.
“I wanted to find a way to connect these incredibly talented artists with students and a field trip to study local artifacts,” she said.
Over the years, Montague has written various grants to pay for the program. This year, Art of Legacy is being funded by the National Park Service and coincides with the agency’s centennial.
Artifacts to art
A week before the art class began their etching, the students visited Fort Vancouver to learn about Vancouver’s history by examining historic documents as well as artifacts excavated from the site. They listened as Bob Cromwell, archaeologist, and Theresa Langford, curator, talked about piecing together stories about how people lived in the past by studying artifacts.
“Archaeologists study trash,” said Cromwell. “Archaeologists don’t usually find expensive jewelry, coins or treasures, but things that tell us how people lived.”
Gesturing to tables laid out with artifacts, he said, “We found these artifacts mostly in the garbage.”
He and Langford held up and discussed artifacts including a bone spoon, a cracked Spode teacup and an obsidian arrowhead. That was the same arrowhead that inspired student Darrian Gunderson.
After hearing stories about the artifacts, students used their school-issued electronic tablets to photograph the artifacts that interested them.
Learning printmaking
After the field trip, teaching artists visited art classrooms to help students create their art and to write interpretive panels to accompany each piece.
Back in Fae Moeller’s classroom at Jefferson Middle School, North Bank Artists Montague and Sharri LaPierre wrestled with the school’s etching press as they taught students a process called dry point printmaking.
“This is one of the oldest methods of printmaking,” said LaPierre, a master printmaker. “One of the things I want them to get is to gain a respect for the art of printmaking. How careful you have to be.”
LaPierre spread thick black ink onto a mirror square. After donning old shirts and aprons to protect their clothing, students spread ink over their etched plate, then wiped it with a cloth to force the ink into all the crevasses in the plate. The trick was to keep enough ink on the plate to print an image, but not so much that the ink smeared.
The slow process of trial and error was counter to the frenetic-paced, instant results students are accustomed to. The first time LaPierre and Montague set paper over inked plates and cranked the press, students stood around the press, eager to catch a first glimpse of their prints. But no images had been transferred onto the paper.
“You usually make a dozen proofs before you’re ready to make good prints,” LaPierre told the students.
Why didn’t the ink transfer from their etched plates to the paper, the students asked. Her answer was not one they wanted to hear. They hadn’t used enough pressure to etch their lines deep enough to hold the ink.
“Wipe off the ink,” LaPierre instructed them. “Then go over the lines one more time. Just to be sure.”
Moeller got her students’ attention and instructed: “The problem we’ve been having is the lines aren’t scratched deep enough. Your assignment is to make sure your lines are deep enough to hold the ink.”
Students returned to their tables, picked up their long nails and began etching deeper lines into their acrylic glass squares.
LaPierre and Montague cranked the press tighter. In the next press run, there was a slight improvement. Some of the papers had a faint, ghostlike print. More tweaking of the press ensued.
With just minutes remaining in the class, one student’s paper emerged from the other side of the press with a clear print of a ginger jar artifact. Success!
But the rest of the students would need to etch their lines deeper and try again later.
“Tuesday, we will print again,” Moeller said.
The Art of Legacy student art show will be displayed at Pearson Air Museum from April 16 to June 4. A public reception is April 16.
