On a bright sunny summer day, SRAP – Wyoming EPSCoR’s
program for high school students explored the more creative side of STEM
alongside fabulous Wyoming artist Katie Christensen, the University of Wyoming
Art Museum Curator of Education and Engagement. Their challenges were to see
landscape and sky scapes in a new and more critical manner, as well as explore
their own creativity.
The morning began before the gallery space was open to the public
for the day. SRAPers could be found getting up and close with works from the
museum’s collection, exploring brush strokes and palate selection of various
pieces. The first activity was to gallery surf, from piece to piece. Katie
shared that the average time an individual spends with a piece of art can be as
short as three seconds. Students were encouraged to take in the space quickly
and find one piece that resonated with them. From there, they were challenged
to spend 10 minutes with a single piece of artwork.
A hush fell over the gallery space. Unsure whether students
were daunted by the task or just settling in, I took my place among the work
and began to look at my piece, Abandoned
Ranch Road by Linda Lillegraven. As the minutes ticked by, I looked at the
brush strokes, observed the way Lillegraven represented sage and summer wild
flowers along a road that disappeared across the prairie towards a mountain
range that felt familiarly Wyoming. Upon the timer buzzing, I felt a struggle
to pull away from the piece; it felt like leaving a conversation with someone
before it was truly wrapped up. Other students remarked the same.
From this deep looking exercise, students went outside for
some of their own observation, reflection, and creative expression. Students
were prompted to look at the sky and clouds and to paint their observations in
watercolor following a process similar to that of developing a lab experiment.
It was a challenge for some who may not have previously seen the connections
between art and science, yet others embraced the challenge with gusto. They
painted en plein air for a time before returning to the studio where final
touches could be applied to their work. Paintings varied from realistic to abstract, but each student created and reflected. The art museum made available plentiful materials and hints on how to achieve various desired effects for the pieces. In all it was a nice opportunity to find connections between the logic and creativity that is science.
