Trent Elementary Students Color Tiles With Creativity
(From Valley Voice, April 3, 1997:) Linda Jabara, librarian at Trent Elementary, and several staff members introduced the school tile project to ALSC Architects. A story in last Thursday’s Valley Voice said otherwise.
Some students were still sketching a cautious pencil outline on their tile. Some had begun painting in flesh tones or eyes or background.
Not Valin Davis.
“I’m done,” Valin said, holding out a tile with an abstract self-portrait. Unfired, with the paint still wet, the fifth-grader’s tile was lovely - startling eyes amid a hooded swirl of color.
Laura Nuchols was wowed. Again.
Nuchols, mother and artist, is the mastermind behind the tile project at Trent Elementary School.
Students, teachers, cooks, janitors - even the architects - are creating self-portraits on tile. The work will adorn the hallways once renovation of the venerable school is complete.
Nuchols is a potter who volunteers in her daughter Meagan’s class one day a week. The tile project, which began at the start of the school year, has enchanted her, she said.
“It started as a simple art project. Then I thought of a mural and I took that idea to the architects,” she said.
She starts the students off with premade tiles, sets out paints in bitty plastic cups, the size that taco sauce comes in. She uses music to help the students relax and encourages them to go with their first instincts.
“The first color you think of is usually the best one,” Nuchols told the kids.
Some of the students sketched in small figures, surrounded by an expanse of tile. Others developed intricate borders. Nuchols painted in a set of lips - right on the table - to show one group of girls how to make “luscious lips.”
“Don’t worry. It’ll wash off,” she said.
Earlier in the year, one set of girls in Debbie Clift’s class insisted on making happy faces as their self-portraits. Nuchols acquiesced, but wanted each to have something different about it.
The girls will do another self-portrait before the end of the year.
“Now they all want to do their own. They don’t want to copy each other at all.”
Sometimes, the more academic students struggle with their tiles, perfectionists. And a few students who can be disruptive in ordinary classroom situations find a streak of inspiration that fuels terrific work.
Art, says Nuchols, is far from a frill for kids. “It’s creative and it’s problem solving.”
Learning about Japan
About 60 Japanese exchange students will attend three Spokane Valley schools and stay with host families during the next nine days.
The students arrive today and stay through April 4, via the Worldwide International Student Exchange. They will be living with families who have students at Horizon Junior High, North Pines Junior High and Mountain View Middle School.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a Valley school or about the achievements of Valley students, teachers or school staff, please let us know at the Valley Voice, 13208 E. Sprague, Spokane, WA 99216. Call: 927-2166. Fax: 927-2175.