BEST FOR LAST

Pittsburg State University art students had an opportunity to cast their final projects in metal recently at the Kansas Technology Center.
Participating were students in the sculpture class taught by S. Portico Bowman. She said that she’s been bringing students to the KTC metals lab for several years to work with Russ Rosmait, engineering technology professor.
“I’m always just thankful to get such a comprehensive experience of process with access to state-of-the-art equipment,” Bowman said. “Russ says yes every year. Sometime I’d like for him to bring his technology students to the art department to do something.”
She said the students worked on a two-week project covering four class sessions.
The project started with a video on the making of “Nightsong,” the sculpture outside the Overman Student Center. Then they practiced with the press mold, created their own original designs in plastic foam and ended by casting the designs in molten aluminum.
“It’s interesting to see how it goes from a ceramic form, which is what we’re used to, to metal,” said Nichole Mullins, PSU senior. “I don’t want to just watch — I want to pour the metal.”
“There are a lot of steps,” Sara Hixon, PSU junior said. “I didn’t know it took all this.”
She said that she made “swirly things” to represent raindrops. “For my final installation project I got coffee filters to look like clouds, and the metal pieces will go through them,” Hixon said.
Trenten Bird, PSU sophomore majoring in painting, said he had poured metal before. “But not as high technology as this,” he added.
The molds were placed in containers of sand, then the metal was poured in. After the pieces had cooled a bit and become solid, they were removed and rinsed with a hose. Most pieces turned out as the designers intended, but those that didn’t were still interesting and provided a valuable learning experience, according to Bowman.
She tries to give her students many such experiences.
“At the start of this semester, the class members had to go to the dollar store with $5 and leave with 2,000 of something,” Bowman said. “They made some crazy things with coffee filters, spaghetti and Cheerios. These are not traditional art materials, but I wanted them to realize that it’s how you think about something that makes it art.”