Shaping New Dimensions

<v Willie Grimes>Sculpture has had a back seat in their mind's eye. <v Willie Grimes>A lot of them in our classes loved drawing, painting, printmaking. <v Willie Grimes>But, you know, the idea of sculptures <v Willie Grimes>is always some metal piece, that's out. <v Willie Grimes>And they're going, you know, I'm a junior high school kid. <v Willie Grimes>I can't bend steel. I can't weld. <v Willie Grimes>You know, that's something that I'm not a part of. <v Willie Grimes>They're developing a sense about sculpture and shadowplay and <v Willie Grimes>things of that nature. Let them- would never have an opportunity to work on anything <v Willie Grimes>above their eye level. <v Willie Grimes>And some of them now actually have pieces, you know, up 20 feet up in the <v Willie Grimes>air that you drive by and you see up there, not on <v Willie Grimes>a table. <v Willie Grimes>That's a whole new dimension for 'em. <v Speaker>[Intro music] <v Willie Grimes>I'm not your new art teacher.

<v Willie Grimes>I'm not here to take the place of your art teacher. <v Willie Grimes>She's a terrific teacher. <v Willie Grimes>But I've come in as the artist in residence for the Charlotte Mecklenburg schools to help <v Willie Grimes>create our section of a piece of sculpture that we're gonna be putting in downtown <v Willie Grimes>Charlotte. <v narrator>Willie Grimes is a sculptor. <v narrator>But this year, she has not been working alone, really. <v narrator>And hundreds of junior high school students have taken on a massive project. <v Willie Grimes>We're putting up a large piece of outdoor sculpture, and I have a model of it right here <v Willie Grimes>that's called a maquette. It's a nice French term to know. <v Willie Grimes>And you're going to be working on the street. <v Willie Grimes>It's going to be on east second street at the metro center. <v Willie Grimes>And the street comes right along here. <v Willie Grimes>And this has two sections to it. <v Willie Grimes>This one section looks pretty small right now, but in actuality, that's going to be 18 <v Willie Grimes>feet high. It's over two stories high. <v narrator>It was during the 1986 87 school year that Willie spent most of her time <v narrator>at McClintock and 14 other junior high and middle schools working with approximately <v narrator>1000 students.

<v Willie Grimes>Basically, I introduced myself and I take a few minutes to <v Willie Grimes>show the model or maquette to them. <v Willie Grimes>And then the strange clay lady just stands there, starts <v Willie Grimes>talking to them about becoming a part of something larger <v Willie Grimes>than they've ever been a part of before. <v Willie Grimes>But all of this different schools, different junior highs have all created different <v Willie Grimes>sections of these clay tiles. The fun part is going to be when I'm dangling 15, <v Willie Grimes>18 feet up in the air on a piece of scaffolding, trying still to put together this jigsaw <v Willie Grimes>puzzle. It's probably one of the largest puzzles I've put up <v Willie Grimes>far up on scaffolding. <v Willie Grimes>They see the model. And then from that moment on, I bring a concrete pad <v Willie Grimes>and put it on a table. <v Willie Grimes>I start drawing out the actual size of the pattern <v Willie Grimes>onto the concrete pad. <v Willie Grimes>We cut it out. We make duplicates of it. <v Willie Grimes>The students then take that paper pattern.

<v Willie Grimes>They roll out the clay. They pound it. <v Willie Grimes>They work it up and then they number it. <v student>How long Do you think it will take you to get this whole thing up? Like a month? <v Willie Grimes>No, no. The stonemason says he can do it in three days. <v Willie Grimes>And I told him I couldn't put the puzzle together in three days. <v Willie Grimes>So we're going to go for four days. <v Willie Grimes>Every piece of clay had to match that pattern. <v Willie Grimes>And it all had to stay in order. I have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of clay <v Willie Grimes>from all over the school system that had to be kept in some kind of <v Willie Grimes>order. And it is, it's a huge puzzle. <v Willie Grimes>And all I'm going to do is just come in here. <v Willie Grimes>And my younger students love this because they can't <v Willie Grimes>believe you don't have to dig out the clay. <v Willie Grimes>Most students. <v Willie Grimes>I don't care what system its in because I've traveled all over North Carolina for over 16 <v Willie Grimes>years and it doesn't vary that much. <v Willie Grimes>They've never worked a piece of clay that's any larger than what they can hold in their

<v Willie Grimes>hands and sculpture to them is something, you know, <v Willie Grimes>this size, is something this size. <v Willie Grimes>And anything larger than that is beyond <v Willie Grimes>their realm of thinking. <v Willie Grimes>And that's what I wanted to give them a chance to- to, expand their thinking, expand <v Willie Grimes>their experience. And even though as students and a <v Willie Grimes>lot of other people are great at accepting problems and saying, <v Willie Grimes>well, I can't do something cause I have a problem, the counts too small to create <v Willie Grimes>large pieces of sculpture. <v Willie Grimes>I can't handle anything more than this size in my hand. <v Willie Grimes>And they start listing out reasons why they can't do <v Willie Grimes>things with more volume and have more Shadowplay too, and having, you know, a greater <v Willie Grimes>feel of volume. And they come up with all these great excuses which are just not <v Willie Grimes>you're not putting your creative mind to work at that point because a problem is only <v Willie Grimes>a problem if you let it be to a large extent.

<v Willie Grimes>And so when I introduce to them, if this is all you can work with, <v Willie Grimes>then take this size and multiply it by a thousand. <v Speaker>[music plays] <v Willie Grimes>I guess the best way of describing is possibly two monoliths <v Willie Grimes>pulling out of the ground is a good description of it. <v Willie Grimes>You have two forms. One is about 23 feet high. <v Willie Grimes>And the other one is about 18 feet high. <v Willie Grimes>And they're just they're pulling out on an uneven <v Willie Grimes>heights and then they're lined with stone on the inside and slightly <v Willie Grimes>stressed apart like they've been. <v Willie Grimes>There's that tension between the two. <v Willie Grimes>So creates great Shadowplay in all kinds of other good things for the design <v Willie Grimes>of it that is lined with the glazed clay tiles on

<v Willie Grimes>the outside from the stone. <v narrator>It was two years ago that Willie Grimes wrote a grant for the project, which was accepted <v narrator>by organizers of Charlotte's Spring Fest. <v Willie Grimes>After I received word that I had been accepted from the grant, I gave Carrie <v Willie Grimes>Winter. The chairman of the Board of Education here a call, introduced myself <v Willie Grimes>and told her that about the grant and <v Willie Grimes>just checked on the possibilities, what she thought about students having an opportunity <v Willie Grimes>to work on an outdoor piece of sculpture. <v Willie Grimes>And her opinions, things of this nature. <v Willie Grimes>And she really she liked it. <v Willie Grimes>And she became one of the best supporters of it that I've had. <v Willie Grimes>So from that moment on, we've been going full force

<v Willie Grimes>with getting it to the stage. You've seen it now. <v Carrie Winter>It took a tremendous amount of cooperation. <v Carrie Winter>First of all, we were delighted that Spring Fest had <v Carrie Winter>made the award. And then we were particularly delighted that the artist <v Carrie Winter>chose the school system as the recipient of the award. <v Carrie Winter>Took a lot of meetings back and forth between the Arts Commission, <v Carrie Winter>the school system, to really settle <v Carrie Winter>into the project. And then once the project began to be implemented, the <v Carrie Winter>artist was just tremendous in bringing about all sorts <v Carrie Winter>of support and developing the apprenticed role for the students <v Carrie Winter>to participate effectively. <v Carrie Winter>-and all the companies coming in and helping out to make sure this hang about <v Carrie Winter>this thing has really grown into a huge community process. <v narrator>The sculpture is almost complete now and really is working to finish it within the next <v narrator>few months. But the last two years have been busy ones, with much of her time

<v narrator>spent drumming up support for the project. <v Willie Grimes>Well, my grant, just to kind of keep me in playing the game <v Willie Grimes>was four thousand dollars and that for a large piece of sculpture is- <v Willie Grimes>is nothing and everything else, everything <v Willie Grimes>else you see was donations. <v Willie Grimes>But all along the way, you know, people have supported it. <v Willie Grimes>I mean, I would go into a steel fabrication plant with <v Willie Grimes>my little model of the piece of sculpture and <v Willie Grimes>ask to speak with the president. Well, just so happened, the president was coming in. <v Willie Grimes>And before I could say anything, he was commenting on the model <v Willie Grimes>and how much he liked it. <v Willie Grimes>And at that point, I'm going, would you be willing to help support, you know, to get it <v Willie Grimes>up? Great. You know, he just. <v Willie Grimes>Anything I can do. And they liked the idea. <v Willie Grimes>They really this community really liked the idea that students were going to get a hands

<v Willie Grimes>on experience with it. <v Willie Grimes>And that has just created a lot of extra support in it. <v Willie Grimes>I would go to Chemist and they would do anything they could to see <v Willie Grimes>it come about, one president of a tile company. <v Willie Grimes>I took the drawing and the first McCants cast him and I sat down where they take <v Willie Grimes>time to sit down. And we went through materials we would need and how much <v Willie Grimes>and everything else imaginable. <v Willie Grimes>And that kind of support is is real important. <v Willie Grimes>It's just especially when you're on a shoestring budget <v Willie Grimes>that has made it the energy stay high energy situation. <v Willie Grimes>Stay up there, too, over the two years. <v Willie Grimes>Carry it through. And you need that over two years stretch. <v Willie Grimes>You really you need that energy. <v narrator>In a project as complex as this sculpture, the artist must literally wear many hats. <v narrator>Shaping the clay and guiding the junior high students is only a small part of the puzzle.

<v narrator>Here at Southern Engineering Company, which donated the steel willy checks on the <v narrator>progress of the frame construction. <v narrator>Designed by architecture students at U.N.CC with labor costs donated <v narrator>by the Charlotte chapter of the American Welding Society. <v Wallace Kerr>Most, of what, man, most of the projects we have going through, southern engineering, <v Wallace Kerr>we don't, uh we measure it in tons, <v Wallace Kerr>2000 ton, 300 ton. <v Wallace Kerr>[inaudible]. And we got a project that's this small. <v Wallace Kerr>And now we've got probably three of our best people working on this project. <v Wallace Kerr>One of them, in fact, worked on the steel frame skylight for the MIT museum. <v Wallace Kerr>So we've got a lot of good quality and got quite a good craftsmanship going into this <v Wallace Kerr>project. <v narrator>While the steel was being welded at Southern Engineering, the Charlotte Mecklenburg

<v narrator>Schools Maintenance Department was readying the site at the Metro Center. <v narrator>With equipment donated by Lincoln Electric and national welders, company representatives <v narrator>helped UNCC students ready the steel frame for its final assembly. <v Willie Grimes>This will take about 18 pounds of clay, <v Willie Grimes>probably for that one section. <v narrator>Meanwhile, at McClintock, Kennedy and 13 other schools. <v narrator>The job of creating the clay tiles continued. <v student>It Looks like it's getting a bit too small. <v student>I think that's-. <v Willie Grimes>Five A right? Does that mean that there's a five B we've got to match it up to? <v Willie Grimes>Is there a five B over there? <v Willie Grimes>At this stage. We have now finished all the handmade clay tiles for this <v Willie Grimes>one segment of the outdoor piece of sculpture. <v Willie Grimes>But what most people looking at this would not understand here. <v Willie Grimes>How does she put it up? How is she going to put it up?

<v Willie Grimes>It almost looks it'd have be glued up because there's no there's not a division in <v Willie Grimes>between from one tile to another. <v Willie Grimes>And when I tell them I'm gonna cement it up, they're going, where's the grout going? <v Willie Grimes>You always have to have, you know, a brick and everything else has to have grout line. <v Willie Grimes>This clay shrinks more than a quarter of an inch. <v Willie Grimes>So instead of patterning, making a pattern for a grout lie, <v Willie Grimes>the shrinking of the clay becomes my grout line. <v Willie Grimes>That takes care of it. And that also makes it pretty even. <v Willie Grimes>So right here at the clay goes together perfectly here. <v Willie Grimes>But at the same time, when I go to put it up, I will have a perfect grout line <v Willie Grimes>just due to the shrinkage of the clay. <v Willie Grimes>At this point, we'll let it dry here. <v Willie Grimes>I have students working at finishing up this day job. <v Willie Grimes>You can see all the empty pieces here. <v Willie Grimes>We're finishing up this stage of it today. <v Willie Grimes>We let it dry. This fire it. <v Willie Grimes>Bring it back. Glaze it. <v Willie Grimes>Then I box it all up and start putting it up. <v Willie Grimes>It sounds, that sounds simple. That is three minutes of simplicity. <v Willie Grimes>That is almost a lie.

<v Willie Grimes>So you're gonna need to take your hands and just bunch it back up, square <v Willie Grimes>it back up a little bit and then your rolling pin is gonna go this way. <v Willie Grimes>Even when you do that, you've got to roll it a couple of times this way. <v Willie Grimes>Flip it back over so that you don't have a false edge coming out here just on one side. <v Willie Grimes>So your edges will stay nice and flat and even. <v student>Well, I just I'm glad that we're able to do it because it just gives <v student>me a chance to have some of my work displayed for the whole community's <v student>enjoyment. It's going to be really neat to have your own work in downtown Charlotte. <v student>I'm just really anxious to see what it's going to look like. <v student>All together with all the other junior high schools and everything, because right now it <v student>just looks like a bunch of mud put together. <v student>But I'm just anxious to see what it's going to look like whenever we get it up there. <v Willie Grimes>And don't cut down all at one time was just cutting down all at one time. <v Willie Grimes>Pulls that clay. <v student>Okay. <v Willie Grimes>Get's it all out of wack. <v student>It's it's you know, it's going to be nice to be able to drive around and <v student>it's like, just point to your friends and point it out to everybody and say, I did

<v student>that piece or I helped build that. <v student>So it's going to be it's gonna be nice. <v student>Well, what's special about it is that, you know, you'll know what it looked like before <v student>it's put up, and you'll know exactly, I mean, you know how long <v student>it took you to mold it out and everything. <v student>You know, nobody else will know that, and they probably won't be imagine it being on the <v student>ground and everything. So, you know, it just gives you <v student>a feeling about it. It makes you makes you feel good that you're part of it. <v Willie Grimes>I love working with students. I really enjoy <v Willie Grimes>communicating with them. I enjoy their interest. <v Willie Grimes>I like being able to improve <v Willie Grimes>their tomorrows, hopefully to give them a vision <v Willie Grimes>and- a hope that they can carry out something <v Willie Grimes>that's important, that other people- and it doesn't matter if other people like it or

<v Willie Grimes>not. But as long as they know they can do something, number one <v Willie Grimes>and they can complete it and carry it out through the whole process <v Willie Grimes>is important. <v student>It takes a lot of throwing the thing around and shaping it just so it's wide <v student>enough and thick enough and then just cutting it out. <v Willie Grimes>The underneath side. It has to be it's just as even as the top side of it. <v student>She's great because we've learned so much with, you know, just <v student>techniques and things like how to <v student>how to make sure, you know, it's thick enough and to get the air bubbles out. <v Willie Grimes>I was able to hear and understand a lot of what was going on, the junior <v Willie Grimes>high school mines, a lot of the gossip going. <v Willie Grimes>I was really interesting. <v Willie Grimes>I heard a lot about music and the ins and outs to being <v Willie Grimes>a junior high school student that I've not had an opportunity in a long time to <v Willie Grimes>deal with both pro and con with it, but

<v Willie Grimes>they have a lot of energy. That's one reason I directed it. <v Willie Grimes>I chose the junior high school level. <v Willie Grimes>They still have a lot of energy. And anyone that has energy has- is <v Willie Grimes>good to work with Clay. <v Willie Grimes>And I brought out the clay and it has to be pounded and worked up so that <v Willie Grimes>there's no air in it. <v Willie Grimes>Well, when I told them that they have to to smash the clay down on the floor <v Willie Grimes>and I wanted them to be angry about it. <v Willie Grimes>You know, some of them would just drop it. <v Willie Grimes>No, I don't go. No, no. I really you can now take it out on the clay. <v Willie Grimes>And I would tell them to think about some situation in school or someone <v Willie Grimes>and just take all of that aggression, everything and put it <v Willie Grimes>into the clay. And then you would hear the bam, bam, bam. <v Willie Grimes>And then every other student would think about something. <v Willie Grimes>Oh, can I have a chance? Bam, bam. <v Willie Grimes>It was great for the clay.

<v Willie Grimes>Go ahead. That's got to come off at this stage of the game. <v Willie Grimes>We're trying to level up these tiles, trying to make it so that the <v Willie Grimes>base will be easier for the stonemason yourself to submit these <v Willie Grimes>things up if they're a little more level. <v Willie Grimes>Some tiles just all depend on what time of day you make them. <v Willie Grimes>The drying, the temperature, the weather, they bevel on you a little bit <v Willie Grimes>different directions, you know, where the water is being forced out. <v Willie Grimes>So that's what I'm showing them, what to look for. <v Willie Grimes>And it makes for a much better glazing. <v Willie Grimes>We can go ahead fire it at this station and I can make a decision. <v Willie Grimes>You need to level that off a little bit. <v student>It's different. <v student>It's not like the regular art stuff. <v student>I just- I think it's neat having something up in town, you know, that I've worked on, <v student>helped work on, you know? <v different student> I put the glaze on these right here, small pieces. <v different student>And paint them halfway down. <v different student>I paint like Barry said, half of these. You have to paint the sides of them, right <v different student>here and the sides and you can't go down because then it won't stick to the surface

<v different student>it's been put on. <v different student>And in the background of <v different student>the trees, because like- I'm outlining, I'm <v different student>also outlining the pattern to make everything <v different student>look right. <v Willie Grimes>Together. <v student>This guy's from here. <v Willie Grimes>Right background here and here. <v Willie Grimes>You're on one inch. She's in the middle. <v Willie Grimes>I'm in the middle. You're in the middle. She's on one hand. <v Willie Grimes>And you're on the other. <v student>She's on the right. He's on the left. <v Willie Grimes>Any time. Well, it is as hard to describe, but any time you try to <v Willie Grimes>put something large together, by piecemealing it, <v Willie Grimes>you have gaps in there that can cause problems. <v Willie Grimes>And it's just something you have to accept and work through. <v Willie Grimes>Kilns not working. <v Willie Grimes>Not operating when you need them to. <v Speaker>[music plays]

<v Willie Grimes>And then the stonemason and his assistant and I started putting the puzzle <v Willie Grimes>together under the trees out from the steel structure at that point. <v Willie Grimes>And we would put the puzzle together on the ground to measure our <v Willie Grimes>mortar spaces and everything in there. <v Willie Grimes>And then we would eyeball it. The drawing was then on the concrete pad. <v Willie Grimes>If we accepted the concrete pads dimensions at that point, what with <v Willie Grimes>the shrinkage of the clay. There's all kinds of things that come into play. <v Willie Grimes>This clay shrinks a little over a quarter of an inch, which is is a fair <v Willie Grimes>amount for Grodd Clay. <v Willie Grimes>All of that had to be calculated and worked with. <v Willie Grimes>So the last calculations were done by the three of us. <v Willie Grimes>And looking at it, eyeballing it, and then cementing it up to the concrete pads that <v Willie Grimes>we put over the steel structure.

<v Willie Grimes>There. <v Geoffrey Edwards>Ok, I Was gonna do that one next. <v Geoffrey Edwards>Um, and I guess [inaudible]. <v Willie Grimes>The small front piece that will bring that out. <v Willie Grimes>Kennedy's over there. The rest of that. <v Geoffrey Edwards>Yeah, they got to let that set up. <v Willie Grimes>Alright, That's what we'll be doing. <v Geoffrey Edwards>Setting out the sizes of the tile is probably slightly different <v Geoffrey Edwards>than was anticipated. So we're having to reset out <v Geoffrey Edwards>all the tile again and probably put in spacer pieces or redesign each <v Geoffrey Edwards>section to fit the dimensions because Willie Grimes only had <v Geoffrey Edwards>some rough dimensions and they're not working out exactly <v Geoffrey Edwards>as the finished product is. <v Geoffrey Edwards>No I enjoy it, I would enjoy it. <v Geoffrey Edwards>This is something different, I mean. <v Geoffrey Edwards>Ever since I've been with Miller tile I've always been doing something out of the <v Geoffrey Edwards>ordinary anyway, so, which is nice in one way.

<v Geoffrey Edwards>There's nothing boring about working with tiles. <v Geoffrey Edwards>You know, there's been tile, there's been handmade tile, there's been marble. <v Geoffrey Edwards>So, you know, this is just another challenge and, you know, I thoroughly enjoy it. <v Geoffrey Edwards>You know, you see a wonder bold structure and you go away and you got a tall sculpture <v Geoffrey Edwards>when you finish. It's very satisfying. <v Willie Grimes>This is so different from a few weeks ago even. <v Willie Grimes>If you had talked to me a few weeks ago, I was in a low. <v Willie Grimes>And I think this is something that, you know, artists know but <v Willie Grimes>other people don't know that right before the big finale of <v Willie Grimes>an artwork. I think you go into a real low slump kind of <v Willie Grimes>phase of it. And that was that was made two weeks ago. <v Willie Grimes>I was things I didn't know if I was gonna be able <v Willie Grimes>to meet my schedule and how things were going to finally materialize. <v Willie Grimes>If everyone, you know, after everyone's promised all this and

<v Willie Grimes>if everything was gonna click together, you know, it's that grand finale in which the <v Willie Grimes>symphony is going. It's got to go on and everybody has to perform. <v Willie Grimes>And one thing has to follow another. <v Willie Grimes>So you have to in order for the finale to finish, everyone has to be in step. <v Willie Grimes>You know, at some point and I wasn't in- two weeks ago I wasn't at all certaint it was <v Willie Grimes>going to happen. But it is. <v Willie Grimes>And, you know, this it's all going to be on schedule. <v Willie Grimes>And things are happening now. <v Willie Grimes>This is just visualizing it. <v Willie Grimes>It feels good. That fact that I'm visualizing the way the actual piece is, the <v Willie Grimes>way that it was in my head. <v Willie Grimes>There have been no great surprises to come about because I've <v Willie Grimes>seen exactly what you're seeing. <v Willie Grimes>Two years ago in my brain. <v Willie Grimes>And it's the way I wanted it to be. And that's nice. <v Willie Grimes>You know, sometimes in the last go around, it's not quite what you thought it <v Willie Grimes>should be. But this is and this is coming around. <v Willie Grimes>It's a lot of good energy. A lot of students, I think, are going to be extremely,

<v Willie Grimes>extremely excited. <v Speaker>[hammering] <v Willie Grimes>Mother Nature is going to be a tough one on it, because <v Willie Grimes>I'm using materials that are that are part of her. <v Willie Grimes>I'm using part of the earth. <v Willie Grimes>The stone things of this nature. <v Willie Grimes>And she takes back her children, so to speak. <v Willie Grimes>She takes them back at some point. <v Willie Grimes>So especially in this area, the freezing and the thawing <v Willie Grimes>process will be the sculptor's worst enemy. <v Willie Grimes>I try to design things so that you see things and you can enjoy <v Willie Grimes>something at a distance, but the closer you get to it, there's always something <v Willie Grimes>additional that you can't see at a distance to enjoy. <v Willie Grimes>And I think that's part of what... <v Willie Grimes>Makes great artworks. Is the fact that you never get tired of it. <v Willie Grimes>There's always something there. If you come back, you can look at a great piece of work, <v Willie Grimes>of art. And you always seem to find something you've never seen before.

<v Willie Grimes>I kind of directed the design and I guess a good way <v Willie Grimes>of approaching how it came about. <v Willie Grimes>Is it. Here's how I'd describe it to the students, too. <v Willie Grimes>If you were standing in Greece on top of a hill and <v Willie Grimes>you have the Mediterranean Sea down below you. <v Willie Grimes>If you were to cut straight down that hill, there is a good possibility <v Willie Grimes>you will find going straight down. <v Willie Grimes>All kinds of civilizations that lived before you right underneath your feet. <v Willie Grimes>And is that some of that archeological process that I <v Willie Grimes>wanted to show. <v Willie Grimes>But I'm pulling it up or carving it out, whichever method. <v Willie Grimes>And either the additive method or the subtractive method to it that I <v Willie Grimes>want to express. I want to show some of those le- levels. <v Willie Grimes>And it worked real well because I had different schools doing different sections of it. <v Willie Grimes>So they got to a a chance to approach their own interest at

<v Willie Grimes>various points. We were able to do a whole series of hits. <v Willie Grimes>Over at Wilson junior high school. Now, if you look closely, some have the ponytails <v Willie Grimes>to the sides. And I mean, you know, 30 years ago, you'd never seen a ponytail <v Willie Grimes>to the side. The ponytail was only to the back. <v Willie Grimes>That's a little bit of what's going on now. <v Willie Grimes>People will be able to look at it in years to come and see a little bit of what students <v Willie Grimes>were thinking about, and what was of interest. <v Willie Grimes>Some of the faces are definitely junior high school faces, things that they're drawing <v Willie Grimes>and working with in their classroom situations. <v Willie Grimes>Now, they might not have been doing that in 1910. <v Willie Grimes>They might not be doing it in the year 2000. <v Willie Grimes>But they're doing it now. <v Speaker>[music starts playing] <v Carrie Winter>I like for them to think of the content of the sculptures, <v Carrie Winter>it reflects people and places and things that were important to them.

<v Carrie Winter>And I think it's it's almost a totem pole for this community in terms of <v Carrie Winter>reflecting something of the people that live here and and go to school <v Carrie Winter>here. <v Willie Grimes>I'm not trying to create sculptors for tomorrow. <v Willie Grimes>I'm trying to create students with better vision.