A communal art project created by students at Carmel High School poses a thoughtful question: “What good are wings without the courage to fly?”
Inspired by a mural outside an art gallery in Katonah, N.Y., the students worked on the project throughout the year, recycling leftover painted papers.
“We often have a lot of leftover papers that we use in our art classroom for different projects,” said Danielle Marino, art teacher at Carmel High School. “I hate to throw anything away, so for the last several years I have been collecting them.”
Throughout the year, whenever a student finished a project early, they cut-out feathers using the leftover colored papers. Organizing the feathers by color, the students assembled them into the shape of two wings. Realizing that the colors needed some balance, they added a row of pearlescent white feathers for contrast. The result is a soaring pair of wings, which can be seen on the wall of the art wing at the high school.
The students were excited to see it all come together as a finished piece, something that was challenging for them after only seeing the project as individual feather pieces for months.
"It looks cool, with all of the colors in rainbow order,” said freshman Grace Fischer. “I liked putting all of the feathers together. I found cutting out all of the feathers a bit tedious, but it looks cool in the end."
"It's really pretty because all of the feathers are made up of different patterns,” added freshman Kaylee Ramirez.
Senior Milo Duch saw the project in another light: “I like it because it helps to bring everyone together.”
When it came time to unveil the final art installation, Marino asked the students to come up with a hashtag that celebrated the communal effort.
The clear winner: #CHSFlyHigh