Marley Comes Alive

In a previous blog, I wrote about my group of high school students from The Beekman School and our effort to create a three dimensional horse in the spirit of Deborah Butterfield. Originally, I thought the project would only take two or three class days to complete. The students were fantastic in their unwavering determination to create the horse, although spirits dipped around day five of the process. But they pulled through for a successful outcome!

The first action we took after gathering the branches and twigs from Central Park, was to separate out responsibilities. Jacob Stahl (pictured below) and Sorawis Saengovich were in charge of engineering. The success of the project rested on their shoulders. They were responsible for the armature of the sculpture and working out how to make the horse stand.

Jacob and Sorawis assemble the “spine” of the horse. Chicken wire

was used 

as an armature.

Equine Skeletal System

Our researchers, Refilwe and Adriana Spinelli provided visual references for the equine skeletal system as well as examples of works by Deborah Butterfield to guide our creative problem-solving approach. Kgmotso and Miriam Starobin formed the design team. Their primary responsibility was the aesthetics of the finished product. They determined whether the neck and head of our horse should be upright as in the equine skeletal example above, or whether it should be angled downward. The designers were charged with issues of proportion, making sure that the head and neck were in proportion to the body. One of the more mundane tasks of the design team was to sort through the collection of twigs and branches and organize them into piles. Annie, Maddalena Lee and Philip Shutovsky filled in depending on the needs of the day.

    Front standing: Kgmotso; back: Adrianna Spinelli;

Seated: Miriam Starobin and Refilwe in the front

Sorawis and Jacob prepare the branch to be used as the spine.

Next, the armature for the rib cage is added

Miriam supervises the design of the neck.

Sorawis and Jacob add small twigs to form the body of the horse.

Adriana and Kgmotso assemble the head.

Kgmotso, Sorawis and Refilwe check the proportion of the head with the body.

Philip applies his craftsman skills to the fashioning of the legs.

The head and the neck of the horse are fitted to the body. Pine cones are added as a creative interpretation of ears.

“Marley”

The students found a wig with dreadlocks among the supplies in the art room and allocated it for the horse's main and tail. Dried roses gave the horse personality as the eyes of the horse. Because of his "do", the students were unanimous in naming their horse "Marley". Marley has taken up residence in the outdoor patio of the Beekman School under the maple tree. The students did a FANTASTIC job and showed ingenuity, perseverance, and the ability to work together toward a common goal. Kudos!