Remember our painted dogs from our charity day in spring, raising money for people affected by the crisis in Ukraine? We’re now making 1,000 of them, for our new Field for Ukraine installation in school.
Over the last few months, Mr Hazeldine has been working with his students to create a Field for Ukraine, an art project comprised of 1,000 dog sculptures, each one painted yellow and blue in support of the Ukrainian people.
All 1,000 dogs will be displayed in the atrium of the June Leader Building from September. They will then be sold at school events to raise funds to support those affected by the crisis.
Over to Anaiya and Aneira in Year 7 to explain more…
Our class was very excited about the project as many of us had never sculpted before. Mr Hazeldine showed us hundreds that he and other St Helen’s students had already made and the studio looked like a factory!
We all loved these charismatic pieces and found one that we could all definitely relate to. At first, it seemed to be much harder than it looked but afterwards we got the hang of it. We felt extremely proud after making one (that didn’t look like a cow or a pig).
When we were making the dogs, we were encouraged to give them personalities and bring them to life by giving them creative huge ears and even bigger snouts just using cocktail sticks and our hands. This was great fun!
Each sculpture has been handmade using china clay which is excellent for carrying the imprints of the person making the sculpture, so everyone who has taken the time to create a dog will be able to add their own unique human trace to the overall installation.
We really enjoyed the experience and discovered that art doesn’t always have to perfect or measured and in this case, we think it looks amazing that each of them are different, We also learnt that in art you can convey a strong message without any words.
Learn more below, including how to make your own dog at home…
