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Texas-Size Installation 

PHOTO DOCUMENTATION BY

GARY GOLDBERG,

MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY

The weather-themed installation, led by Beth Galston, ArtFest09 guest artist, looks like a postmodern scene from “The Wizard of Oz.” It features a tornado seemingly swirling in the center of a curtain of sparkly rain while puffy clouds hang above it and rain puddles carpet the twister below.

“She guided students to recreate Texas weather emerging thematically as the giant tornado and turbulent activity,” Henson said.

 A particullarly interesting part of the installation are the materials from which the artwork is created. Galston’s specialty is working with manmade materials to establish artworks that emulate nature.

If you look closely, you can see plastic water bottles within the tornado, which itself is made out of plastic wrap and irrigation tubing. The rain is made from shards of CDs and DVDs, and the clouds out of colored garbage bags.

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“It’s made of recycled materials, like repurposed CDs and DVDs ... The biggest part of the content is recycled plastic bottles,” Henson said of the untitled installation, which filled the museum’s Gallery 5. Students and teachers in the school district gathered recycled materials for several weeks before the workshop.

Fourteen WFISD students who applied and were selected to participate in the summer camp, spent two weeks not only creating the tornado installation, but participating in a number of other workshops on the MSU campus.

LINK TO STUDENT WEATHER-THEME WORKS

Gary Goldberg, professor of art at MSU, taught a seminar in digital photography and graphics. Students learned watercolor and charcoal techniques from Rider High’s Nancy Kizis and costume-making combined with photography techniques from Hirschi High’s Tommy Evans.

B.C. Gilbert of Rider and Larry Hamilton of McNiel Junior High assisted Beth and guided the students through the challenging process of creating an immense body of work in a short span of time. Christi Montgomery and Angeline Nesbit, art majors from Moore College of Art and Design, served as interns assisting the event with their art and leadership skills to further sharpen the students' creative talents.

Professor Goldberg  said of ArtFest09, “I think it really gave the students an opportunity to be involved working in a college atmosphere.”

He added that for those participants who might not have been thinking of going to college before, “We hope to plant a seed.”

Amelia Dever, 15, who will be a sophomore at Rider, said that during Artfest, she had the opportunity to visit museums, look at art and learn about different disciplines within the arts.

With the weather installation, she noted that the garbage bag clouds were her idea.“I learned anything can be made into art,” she said, even garbage bags.

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STUDENT WEATHER ART SLIDE SHOW 

ARTFEST ACTIVITIES

ARTFEST STAFF

JUST FOR FUN

WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS 

JIM HENSON, ARTFESTO9 DIRECTOR AND WEBMASTER

CONTACT THE WEBMASTER

LINK TO JIM HENSON'S WEBSITE