While some students sit in a blank classroom and stare mindlessly out a window while hearing yet another lecture from their teachers, students in AP 3D art get a breath of fresh air.

“We were given the assignment to create an installation outdoors, based off of Andy Goldworthy’s work, so my class went out to the back of the school’s property for locations,” senior Audrey Holstead said. “We had to try and make it from just what was around us, but we could use other materials if we needed.”

Andy Goldsworthy’s sculptures are made from whatever he can find and whatever inspires him by going out into the woods.

“He uses icicles, leaves, rocks, whatever he finds,” art teacher Jeff Seidel said. “The challenge for my students was the same thing. We had to go out and whatever they found outdoors they had to construct a sculpture.”

Students also used some items that were not found in the woods.

“I for example used sticks and rocks, but I used twine to hold it together and ended up spray painting it blue so it would stand out better,” Holstead said.

With everything all one shade of color, some students had improvise a bit on their sculptures.

“On a few of them I let them cheat, like on Audrey Holstead’s. When we photographed it, it got lost in the background so we lightly misted it with paint so that it would pop out from the background in the photographs because that is how our artwork is judged,” Seidel said. “We don’t get to mail our sculptures off, they just get to look at a photograph of it, so a few of them we had to accent them to bring it out from the background.”

Creating artwork in nature is not always easy and relaxing however, the elements can be hard to work with.

“It was difficult to get work done because nature could kill your piece at any moment,” senior Cort Thomas said.

Although it was not always a breeze making the sculpture, these students got a break from the normality of classrooms and instead breathed in some fresh air.

“It was challenging to have to try and work from only what was around us, as well as the confines of the locations we would choose,” Holstead said. “I kept getting my hair caught on the limbs of the trees around me and had to crouch for most of my work. It was really relaxing to work outside though.”