Steamroller art brings Valley students together

PALMER — Thursday afternoon in the Palmer High School wood shop, students watched as a steamroller drove slowly over their meticulously crafted works of art.

Though used in road construction, in the art world steamrollers often carry connotations of destruction; smashing offensive albums or artwork as a publicity stunt.

Thankfully, the art students in the shop Thursday had found a way to use the steamroller as a creative tool — to make bedsheet-sized prints using wooden printing blocks carved from sheets of plywood.

“This is a first-of-its-kind event,” Palmer high art teacher Shelli Franckowiak said.

The event drew in 19 Palmer students, 12 from Wasilla High School and 23 from Colony High School.

“Our advanced art students have never really had a chance to meet each other,” Franckowiak said.

The printed images produced by the carved wooden blocks — printed, by the way, on sheets of fabric, but also on recycled materials like bed sheets and shower curtains — contained a lot of industrial elements — pistons, gears, wires.

“We wanted to make a connection between the subjects of the artwork and the machines we use to create the artwork,” Franckowiak said.

Palmer High junior Ella Van Siegman said art students worked in groups to create each block. Her group in particular carved a block that involved a tree, a pregnant woman and a robot.

“We wanted to show how machines are kind of taking over our lives,” Van Siegman said.

She noted how the robot seemed to be menacing the woman’s child.

“We’re kind of holding on to that last chance at life,” she said.

She said she enjoyed the project but it was a lot of work.

“I’m ready to be done,” she said.

Fellow junior Erica Munro’s group came up with a block depicting the familiar Evolution of Man progression with a few extra steps bringing the evolution from ape to robot. Munro said that, for her, art is typically a solitary pursuit.

“It was interesting learning how to work with others,” she said. “It was OK. It wasn’t my favorite.”

Franckowiak said cooperation was one of the high points of the project for her, especially when it means bringing kids together from different schools for the final collaborative event.

“I think a lot of times when our Valley schools get together it’s to compete,” she said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.