Face to Face with Laura Frazier

For the 6^th year after piloting the “Face-to-Face” project with artist Laura Frazier, 4^th graders created clay replicas of their own faces. Working with a partner and an army of parent volunteers, each student learned to breathe steadily as strips of gauze soaked with wet plaster were gently woven across the contours of cheeks, nose, and mouth. After a few moments, the solidified form was lifted from the chin, slowly revealing negative space where each student’s face had been. Guiding the students in journaling the experience, Ms. Frazier then carried the fragile shells home, returning the following week with thick plaster casts, one for each child.

      Again the parent volunteers assisted as students pressed rich brown clay firmly into the casts. Then, more journaling, and another wait for the students, while Ms. Frazier baked the pieces in a kiln. At last the faces were returned, complete. The 4^th graders wrote in journals again after a rare human experience; beholding one’s own face in three dimensions. The process was repeated again as students embellished a second face with stars, horns, music notes, and other expressions of individuality using three different colors of clay.

      Ms. Frazier observes a steady improvement in student writing each year. She describes the current collection of 4^th graders “a real joy.” Students shared journal entries inspired by the metaphor of a tree: leaves and branches blending so that one can’t be separated from the other, while roots of the interior self grow in a variety of environments, from sandy soil to moist humus. “They encouraged each other,” Ms. Frazier reports. “They were very supportive of each other as creators and as presenters. They really dove into the experience. It held their attention.”

      The project has gone through several incarnations over six years. There are now three classrooms of 4^th graders instead of one. Playwright and film directory Nathan Freeman joined ABES parent and songwriter Kevin Watson (now publisher/editor of Press 53) in the first two years. This year for the first time, Bob Moyer used the experience of creating the clay faces and the journal studies as springboards for writing haiku. “Mr. Bob” is a published haiku poet and a poetry slam master, who coached these same students in the first annual ABES 2^nd grade poetry slam two years ago. They will read their haiku and exhibit the clay faces in a special performance for friends and family on a date soon to be announced.

 

 

Haiku by Chris Smoot                                                                       Haiku by Lauralaine Thiers

 

Under my fingers                                                                                     Mask and I

The creation begins                                                                                 Share a face

Mask making workshop                                                                         Clay and skin