Astonishing Artwork
Each year at the Harduf Waldorf School, the students of the high school graduating class undertake a critical mission: to research, prepare and present a ‘final work’. The final project is to be the student’s choice that in “some meaningful way expresses the student within the work”, exploring and working through anything that is close to the student’s heart.
Invitation to The Graduating Class Exhibition of Final Projects May 6-19, 2011
Writing a document that details and describes the process of creating their work, each student then presents their extraordinary creations, outlining their many months of heartfelt explorations before an ever-changing audience in a gallery setting of their own design over a three-week period.
The process, and the outcome, is quite astonishing, I’m certain you’ll agree!
One student explored her feelings about her lack of memories as a family unit, as her parents had divorced when she was eight years old. Another student examined the various types and uses of humour. One student scrutinized his experiences when he was bullied as a young child, and wrote about his healing process. Yet another student described how difficult it is to make choices in life, ultimately realizing that intuition plays an important role, and resulting in a greater sense of creative expression.
There are hands that hold and embrace childhood… a series of etchings on wood of older people… and a dining table a student created as a gift to his mother…
Finding it difficult to determine the issue he wanted to investigate, one student stayed at a monastery for a few days… then he went parachuting! Significantly, his final project was to photograph people who live on the streets. A shy student looked into the issue of self-confidence, and presented his musical talents to his family and friends. The miniature replica of a set of drums that he created are not only beautiful, they actually work – perfectly!
Our talented niece Ruth, who apprenticed in glasswork with us last summer, was mentored by Oded via phone and Skype over the past few months while she worked on her final project…
Ruth researched an issue that is always close to her heart: that of the pain of living in the shadow of The Holocaust – as a granddaughter to survivors of Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps and Slave Labour Camps. Through interviews with her grandparents, meeting with a psychologist, learning more about the Buddhist approach to relieve suffering from her father, research and study, Ruth’s project was a challenging exploration on trauma and healing. Her quest was to “penetrate deeper into the stories that always followed me.” Ruth worked through her personal experiences with grace and thoughtfulness, writing her thesis document, and creating her stained glass artwork, as she describes here.
I wanted to work with glass because I have been curious about the medium since I last worked in glass over a year ago. I have always wanted to do my final project in glass. This was the first project I did on my own, and initially I was afraid to start it, so I kept postponing the work. Yet I had a very clear image in my mind of how it would look. I tried to see how each piece of glass would fit with the others in term of colours and composition. At the beginning, I had green stained glass in the piece, but after I had already cut the pieces I realized that green did not ‘fit’ properly.”
This project was part of a larger project dealing with trauma and healing. The work shows two groups of people; the upper group represents trauma (one person in trauma and two others who support him). The images in the second group show the same people after healing. It was important to me to place the subject of trauma in the upper area because when one is in trauma one ‘loses ground’, and the feeling I wanted to convey is the concept of floating away from reality. That is the reason that the figures are standing on a precipice.
Once healed, ‘life’ is regained, and the subjects are once again able to stand on solid ground. Through working with stained glass on this special project, I discovered the significance of light, and how it affects the glass, and the mood of the artwork. The light shining through the project emphasizes and is part of the healing process.
I want to thank Odie for teaching me how to work with glass, guiding me from far away, and helping me with my glass artwork.
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