Orange is for Orangeburg in giant 3D Earth Day artwork

Students from Bethune-Bowman Middle High School, Edisto Primary School, North Middle High School, Dover Elementary School, William J. Clark Middle School and Branchville High School embarked on an artistic venture to create “A Giant Orange” with recyclables.

The giant 3D orange artwork will be placed at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center and the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce on Earth Day. The orange is in honor of Orangeburg.

About 15 students at North Middle High and Dover Elementary participated in the project, school art teacher Linda Aiken said.

The students created the three-dimensional Giant Orange in a basket out of newspaper using a weaving technique.

“When the students were working on the project, every time someone walked into the class, they would ask, “Why are you all making a big pumpkin and Halloween is over?” Aiken said. “The students and I were so tired of saying, ‘It’s an orange!’ ‘Well, it looks like a pumpkin to me!’”

“A pumpkin in a basket!,” Aiken said. “Whatever!”

The students stuffed the orange with newspaper and embellished it with aluminum can lids, newspaper flowers, the S.C. flag, the Orangeburg County schools’ logo and North Middle High School name.

The orange sits on a base made of large vegetable tin cans collected from the school’s cafeteria. The project was accompanied by a discussion about Earth Day.

Recyclable materials used included newspaper, cardboard, styrofoam, aluminum can lids and tin vegetable cans, Aiken said.

Other items used included fabric paints, acrylic paints, spray paint, hot glue, markers and drawing paper.

The Earth Day project was the idea of Edisto Primary School art teacher Jasmyne Wall. Wall could not be reached for comment.

The OCFAC, the OCCC and Orangeburg city leaders jumped on the idea with the goal to bring the arts into a more visual presence in the community to show residents what the city has to offer in art. The OCSD got the students from several schools involved.

“I am always looking for collaborative arts and culture opportunities with the Orangeburg County School District,” Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center Director Vivian Glover said. “The Arts Center is looking forward to hosting an end-of-school year concert in the Lusty Gallery as well.”

Four Branchville High School students in the 10th through 12th grades participated in the art project for a week, receiving inspiration for the masterpiece from “Color Study. Squares with Concentric Circles, 1913” by Wassily Kandinsky.

Students used recycled cardboard, paper egg cartons, magazines, wood and ribbon. Acrylic paints and spray paints were also used.

“The students brainstormed ideas about what materials were available in the class that could be used,” art teacher Lillie Dunning said. “Once a sketch was made for the orange, students constructed the armature, painted and cut individual sections from the egg cartons and covered the armature with orange ribbon.”

“A leaf was made by using cut magazine pictures with a majority of green in the images,” Dunning said. “The egg sections, stem and leaf were attached, thus creating our Giant Orange.”

During their artistic creation, students also discussed the meaning of Earth Day and what things they are doing to save the earth, Dunning said.

“The students enjoyed creating the Giant Orange; however, in the construction of making the sphere shape of the armature, the cardboard slumped, thus making the orange appear to look like a pumpkin,” Dunning said. “They suggested that the next time, chicken wire can be used to mold the shape better.”

At Bethune-Bowman Middle High School, students from the sixth grade to the 12th grade participated in the two-week project.

The students were asked to design a triangle that says something about them such as what they do for a hobby or activity or something that makes them unique.

“Many chose to make patterns,” art teacher Paul Abrahamsen said, adding that the goal is to completely cover the orange with student art.

The students used poster board, glue, wood, spray paint and felt. Students also used plastic water barrier boards typically seen in many mobile home bathrooms, Abrahamsen said. The wood and cardboard were recycled.

“Initially, I presented my students with the challenge,” Abrahamsen said. “I showed them a PowerPoint that was presented to the teachers, listed the criteria and challenged the students to think about and research some ideas for making giant 3D oranges.”

Abrahamsen and the students shared their findings and built small-scale models.

“We ended up deciding on an orange made out of two geodesic domes placed base to base,” Abrahamsen said. “The major role of the students participation was making the artwork which was mounted on the isosceles triangles.”

At William J. Clark Middle School, two eighth-grade students participated in the five-day Earth Day art project.

The students used large cardboard boxes and bubble wrap.

“These materials were recycled to make the large orange with imagination,” school art teacher Malissa Wright said.

Wright said in the early stages of the project, some of the students thought the sculpture looked like an apple.