The art room at Clarkston Junior High School was quiet on June 19 as the creativity soared during Teen Art Camp.
The annual camp kicked off on Monday as campers, entering sixth through 12th grade, created their alternative sketchbook made out of discarded library books.
The books, once used to educate, were recycled into a place for new ideas, drawings and cartoons.
“I couldn’t get them out of it,” said Claudia Keglovitz, art teacher at the junior high. “We didn’t do anything else for the rest of the day. I showed them charcoal and how to do it. Then, they went right back to their sketchbooks.”
Hannah Hop used the center of the book to host her artwork made out of antique buttons, glass and other findings. Lexi Traynor turned her sketchbook into a place to draw her cartoons.
“They gessoed (a white paint mixture) the pages so they could draw on them,” Keglovitz explained. “The pages are put together with the wax paper then they can peel them out and draw on the pages.”
Other campers cut out sections of the book to create secret compartments.
The campers also created with one of the favorite camp activities – screenprinting. They put their designs not only on paper but canvas bags and T-shirts.
They worked with charcoal, paints, colored pencils and encaustic wax. They also learned more about the media they were using.
Keglovitz explained encaustic wax was used by Vikings to protect the hulls and decorations on their ships. It can also be blended with India ink. When mixed with beeswax it becomes smooth and fluid.This year she brought in the heat gun for campers to use.
“The things that are popular are things we can’t do during the school year,” she added. “I understand that. Also, they are so intense.”
Some of the campers used discarded dry wall as the canvas for their creation. They used it for low relief carvings of their drawings and designs into the pieces. A few used watercolor to make the layers and texture pop more.
“It was based on an idea my niece (Nicole) had,” Keglovitz said. “It was just word of mouth. People said that’s cool I want to do that, too.”
Keglovitz was helped by Bailey Smith, a former student and now an art teacher for Clarkston Community Schools at Independence Elementary and the Early Childhood Center.
The fun continued this week as Smith held the second session at Independence Elementary. The camps ended on Thursday with a Gala Art Opening where friends and family viewed all the projects the campers worked on during the week.
Both Teen Art Camps are offered through Clarkston Community Education. For more information about this camp and other summer camps, please visit www.clarkston.k12.mi.us/cec or call 248-623-4326.