Polk County
Living
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • March 30, 2016 7A
BUGS, TURTLES, TIGERS
Art Camp promotes love of art, imagination
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Sadie Welborn’s turtle takes a step in her diorama of the cloud forest, surrounded by a damselfly and Hercules beetle. In the background, a jungle cat takes a step.
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH — Deep in
the jungles of Monmouth lay
a forest in the clouds.
“There’s a lot of bugs that
live there,” said Elle Denney.
“They’re nice. Some are
mean; some are nice. You
will find a beetle. You will
find a butterfly.
“You could probably also
find ants, turtles or mon-
keys,” said Sadie Welborn as
she used colored pencils to
design the background of
her diorama — a three-di-
mensional display — during
Ash Creek Arts Center’s
spring break arts camp.
What’s another bug that
lives in the cloud forest?
“It’s on the top of my
tongue,” said Oscar Ibarra. “I
was just talking about it in
my brain a couple minutes
ago.”
Ryder Stewart pipes up,
“Damselfly.”
All the while, these young
artists patiently and pur-
posefully experiment with
colored pencil techniques to
create a world within their
minds — a world they’ve
never seen in person, but
have studied online and are
re-creating with clay and
paper figures — the cloud
forest.
It is a place similar to a
rain forest, but with con-
stant or regular low clouds.
It also is called a fog forest,
Oscar said.
“It basically has the same
animals as the rain forest,”
he said.
Oscar showed his work to
Francie Zandol, the coordi-
nator and director of the Ash
Creek Arts Center’s art camp.
It was of tall grasses on a
black board, and will create
the backdrop of his diorama
cloud forest.
“I used white,” he said. “I
didn’t want to use just green,
or it would be a big blob. I
wanted it layered.”
“You’re creating depth
with color,” Zandol ob-
served.
Oscar and Zandol dis-
cussed ways to create differ-
ent shades to really give his
grass dimension.
“I want light greens and
dark green,” he said.
One way he could make
different greens is by com-
bining yellow and blue,
Oscar noted.
Ryder took his work to
Sonia Allen, art camp in-
structor. She held it up for
him so he could change his
perspective.
“What do you want to
add?” she asked. “Some-
times you just have to take a
step back.”
Ryder pointed to a couple
of spots on his boards. Here,
he would add a flower.
There, he would add an in-
sect.
In another room, a sec-
ond group of youth worked
on clay animals and large
leaves that would be found
in the cloud forest.
Ashley Moore painted
spots on her pink jaguar
while her sister, Grace,
worked on a yellow jungle
cat.
Jessie Welborn put mark-
ings on her frog.
All the animals were made
from scratch with soft clay
before being painted, glazed
and fired.
It can be tricky to deter-
mine exactly what the final
product will look like be-
cause the paints change
color after the glaze is ap-
plied, Jessie explained.
“When you do the glaze,
everything turns darker,”
Jocie Dunmire noted.
Jessie combined primary
colors to achieve her final
look, mixing yellow and red
to create a different orange
than what was available.
“I’m not really sure how
these colors will turn out,”
she said.
Angel Ibarra has been
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
J.J. Chavez collects his artwork after the artists reception.
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Jessie Welborn, left, gets help putting a glaze on her ceramic frog while Ashley Moore, right, looks on.
Ash Creek summer camp
• Ash Creek Art Center will hold an art camp this summer
from July 18 through 21 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Children will work together to design and make their own
puppets.
• They will also learn about puppets, from the Bunraku pup-
pets of Japan to Kermit the Frog, used as dramatic ways to tell
stories that evoke a sense of wonder and meaning.
• Camp is free for students in grades four through seven.
• Space is limited and advanced registration is required.
• To register: www.ashcreekarts.org.
working with clay since the
first grade. Now in fifth
grade, he has enjoyed many
art camps and classes
through Ash Creek Arts Cen-
ter.
“The fun is when you’re
putting the pieces together,”
he said. “It could take a day
or a week. It’s easy, fun, and
you don’t know what you’re
going to make.”
Angel said the clay often
speaks to him. Once he has
an idea of what he wants to
create, he does research on-
line about the animals. He
enjoys the creativity of art,
especially ceramics.
“It’s just fun,” Angel said.
“You can make your own
stuff. No one can tell you
how to do this, how to do
that.”
The young artists hosted a
reception on Thursday at St.
Hilda’s Episcopal Church,
where the art camp was
housed.
James Moore, father of
Ashley and Grace, was sur-
prised to see his daughters’
work.
“They’re talented with
everything,” he said. “But
this is new.”
Zandol will host a second
art camp in June, teaching chil-
dren how to make puppets.
Classes are limited to 16
students. Register online at
www.ashcreekarts.org.
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Ryder Stewart uses colored pencil to put the finishing
touches on the backdrop for his diorama of the cloud forest.
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Jessie Welborn’s diorama includes a detailed frog, from its salmon-colored tongue to its orange, round toes.