Valley Arts Alliance helps kids make buoyant creations

WASILLA — Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Wasilla Lake, along comes Erynn Reynolds.

The local 10-year-old couldn’t hide a mischievous smile while creating a work of floating art — a large, blue shark fin, reminiscent of the 1975 classic horror flick “Jaws.”

“Yeah, I hope it’s scary,” she said, trying to cut out a hole in a slab of Styrofoam in which to place a nearly perfect fin. She got the idea to make a floating shark fin when she saw the curved piece.

“I thought that’s what it looked like, so I’m going with it,” she said.

Reynolds was among dozens of Valley kids to use an assortment of Styrofoam, pipe cleaners, empty plastic water bottles and paint Saturday at the first Valley Arts Alliance floating art event at Wasilla Lake.

It’s an idea a pair of alliance members had, said board member Carmen Summerfield.

“Elsie Ledoux and Randy Robinson were both working at Fred Myer and saw something like this somewhere else, and said, ‘Let’s do a floating art thing here at the lake,’ so we got a nice donation from Fred Myer,” she said.

That donation included materials for kids (and a few young-at-heart adults) to build their floating pieces from. The store also donated 16-ounce bottles of water to help beat the heat, and the empty bottles also became building material, Summerfield said. It was a way to help show how kids can be creative while recycling used items around the house.

“Why not make art float and broaden your horizons that way?” she said. “We also want to encourage recycling.”

To help inspire the young artists, alliance members created some of their own floating works to display. Ledoux crafted several giant origami swans, while another member constructed a floating logo of the local recycling center out of empty plastic bottles. Another used an old rake and other materials to make a floating face.

And Summerfield?

Her contribution was a giant floating hand grenade.

“That’s a wax mold that I’ll pour next week at Art on Fire,” she said, referencing the Valley Arts Alliance’s annual cast iron pour and festival at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry.

While Reynolds was busy making her shark fin, Mylee Engel, 8, and 6-year-old friend Ashley Schaeffer were wading around the edge of Wasilla Lake, pushing their colorful creations. Both included copious amounts of bright paints and pipe cleaners. The girls later took advantage of some sidewalk chalk to decorate the cement patio at the park’s pavilion.

After seeing an announcement about the floating art event, mom Kelly Engel said she thought it was a great idea to encourage kids to do something creative outdoors.

“It gets them off their video games,” she said.

Using recycled materials, kids can make their own floating toy boat out of two empty plastic soda or water bottles, permanent markers and large rubber bands. Learn how by visiting ehow.com/how_6570695_make-floating-toy-boat.html.