3-D Make

An artist is often thought of a person who draws or paints to create something of their own. The term, often seen as intimidating to those who do not associate themselves with this idea scares them away from the idea of creating art. Art teachers Mollie Lounibos and Harry Frank saw this problem at the school and last year created a entirely new class: 3-D Make. The innovative idea of the class which teaches students many skills, stressing group work and creative thinking. 3-D Make teacher Mollie Lounibos describes the class.

“The shortest way to describe it is, when I say I tech sculptor, people think we are chiseling stone, traditional sculpture. When I say make, people just have so many different ideas or no idea at all what make means. So usually I tell people it is a nontraditional sculpture class that puts focus on group work, problem design, problem solving and that gets people thinking ‘oh this is kinda interesting,’” Lounibos said.

The class is different from traditional sculptor and art classes due to the way the class is set up that thrives on collaboration.

“We use non traditional materials, like we use recycled materials, we do craft based things like we are going to make a wooden spoon, and then we make contraptions so we can pick things up and move them. And they do a lot of work with each other, they are really forced to work with people they would not necessarily be working with and I feel, the thing I am hoping to develop, that i hope students, when you have constraints, like people you would not normally work with or  time limits, ot limited materials, that constrain, that struggle is where creativity comes from… It is a non traditional sculptor class that has design challenges,” Lounibos said.

Ms. Lounibos has crafted a class different than any other art class at the school, that puts emphasis on working outside of one’s comfort zone. The students have recognized and found challenge in this aspect of the class, which has made impacts on the student’s lives in the class, including sophomore Jennifer Loyo.

“Most people would think of the same things, she wants you to think of something no one has ever thought of before. It is a challenge. The coolest [project] was newspaper tower; it was really about getting with our groups and communicating. In other classes there is normally one person who does all of the work but in 3D make we all work together,” Loyo said.

Loyo also discussed how the class how changed her entire perspective of the world, and perhaps her future.

“I see ordinary things and I can change it somehow in my head. I would definitely consider going into a job somehow like 3-D make,” Loyo said.

And Loyo is no exception– it is evident that Lounibos has been successful in her mission of creating a class which allows students to be creative in their own ways, but not by having an structured class, but a class which forces students to think about the world around them and face challenges. Senior Christopher Chavez has had a different experience than he expected.

“Honestly I thought it was just going to be an easy A, but it ended up being really fun. I am actually getting something out of it, it is not something that i can just blow off and get an easy A. Before I never took art classes and now I am taking art one and this class it is a lot of fun. It makes me took a lot more in depth in things it makes you really learn how difficult it takes to support itself, like when i look at a building I can see how much goes into it now,” Chavez said.

“It is what we call the studio habits of mind: thinking critically about it, putting it into action, that’s where innovation comes from, that practice. To some people it will make their worlds a better place. Other people it becomes a who career path. But I know they will go on a little changed, hopefully they will see the world in a different way. To get more control of their life, everything is design, they can design their lives,” Lounibos said.