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2015 Art Chairs

Recycling the Artistic Way

September 16, 2014

Avenley shows off her chair

Kelsey's shark

This is how the chairs looked when we started. They had seen better days...

now a coat of black paint...

and a coat of bright spray paint to the underside and the chairs were looking better already!

And the sanding begins

The girls spent a class period sanding and then wiping off the sawdust

This gave them a smooth surface to paint

The next step was to give the under side a couple of coats of spray paint that was left over from the Art room remodel a few years ago

A couple of coats of black paint left over from the wolf pack signs in the gym

Sometimes ideas change as we go along. This design was eventually painted out.

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Avenley shows off her chair

The high school Art 1 class began the year recycling old chairs that Mrs. Heithoff picked up at a garage sale.  The chairs were destined to be thrown away if the Art kids couldn't save them.  So in order to keep them from the land fill the students turned them into an Art project. The original idea was to complete a master reproduction of a famous artwork on them, then we started brainstorming ideas....then we discussed zentangling the chairs...then we viewed some Oaxacan and Aboriginal artworks (these are art movements that emphasize pattern)....then we got on Pinterest and there were almost too many ideas to take in.  We finally settled on painting a picture on the seat and then more design and pattern on the rest of the chair.

Elie shows off her hummingbird design

Taylor poses with her tree creation

Ruben joined us part way through the project.

Students chose designs and color schemes and quickly went to work

along with a quick break for a photo op

Taylor and Kelsey diligently working on their tree and shark designs

Shelby chose a compliment color scheme of orange and blue to create her butterfly design

Avenley works on her flower

Elianne chose a bird for her chair

Ruben paints his flower

The chairs in progress

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Elie shows off her hummingbird design

The students started off sanding down the chairs to smooth off any rough edges and give the metal parts some "tooth" for the paint to ahere to.  After sanding and wiping to get rid of sawdust, the chairs were spray painted underneath a bright color.  The rest of the chair was given an over all coat of black paint.  The chairs were looking better already!  But the students didn't stop there.  Students used spray paint, acrylic paint and markers to create their designs.  

Ruben was a little camera shy but finally posed with his project

Avenley and Ruben's chairs in progress

Laiza, Breanna, Elie, Kelsey, Shelby and Taylor's chairs

Breanna gave hers a plain coat of yellow

And then added highlights and shadows to give it depth

Breanna's finished chair

I had a difficult time convincing Ruben to pose with his chair

then Shelby got into the act with a photo bomb

But he finally posed with his project

The chairs on display in the hallway of the high school building

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Ruben was a little camera shy but finally posed with his project

It's hard to believe but there's only about a $2.00 investment in each chair.  By buying the chairs at a garage sale for a dollar each and using paint from previous projects, the students were able to channel their creativity into creating a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture and recycling something that was destined to end up in a landfill.  

To give you a little background on this project, I had seen painted chairs at various art shows over the years usually as a master reproduction (copying a famous painting such as Van Gogh's Starry Night) and was on the lookout for some chairs.  Paula and I went to city wide garage sales at Niobrara earlier this fall.  Five chairs were sitting outside of the local museum with a "make us an offer" sign on them.  The chairs were in sorry shape and my $1 a chair offer was quickly accepted.  As Paula and I were loading my five chairs a lady came out of the museum and told me she had more and if I wanted those as well.  Figuring I could always use them and I went back and got three more chairs.  So we repacked the back of my pickup and managed to fit all eight chairs in.   As it turned out I had eight students in my Art 1 class so it turned out perfect.  The students did an awesome job on the chairs and they will look great in the hallways for years to come.