Conservation in Clay

Sariah Monfared took the white clay and began to bring her sketch of a skunk to life in the form of a sculpture.

"Does it really look like it?" Monfared said after someone noted the shape of the wire armature that anchors the piece looked similar to her sketch.

The Bartlesville High School senior art student was one of several students in instructor Julie Giovannetti's art class who are participating in a collaborative pilot project with the Sutton Avian Research Center and three professional sculptors from the Oklahoma Sculpture Society.

The goal of the Conservation in Clay project is to educate students and the community about the natural world through art.

"We believe that artists are some of our best conservationists," said Audra Fogle, director of development at the George Miksch Sutton Aviation Research Center. "They see the detail in the world that others don't see."

Professional sculptors Dian Church, Larry Waid and Pamela Winters moved through the classroom to teach students the steps to sculpting a piece from building the base to completion of the finished work.

They showed them how to use power drills and other tools to build the structure that will be filled in with various materials and covered with sculpting clay.

"We know of so many kids who won a Sutton Art Award and it was a transformative moment in the art career and how they feel about wildlife conservation," Fogle said. "To enter the competition, they have to write a 250-word essay to accompany their artwork. For so many, that opens their eyes and deepens their understanding of wildlife conservation and art."

Giovannetti's art students began by visiting the Sutton Avian Center last month and learned about animals on the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation's list of threatened and endangered animals in the state.

Students were asked to select a wildlife topic and sketch it over winter break to use as a touchpoint as they begin their sculptures. Their finished artwork will be eligible to be entered in the annual statewide scholarship competition, the Sutton Art Awards.

The Sutton Center awards up to $20,000 in cash to winning student artists and their instructors and particularly recognizes students who demonstrate the ability to communicate current conservation topics in compelling ways through art.

"Bartlesville is so beautiful and has a lot of wildlife. This is a way to educate our community about the natural world around us," Fogle said. "If we don't educate people about the wildlife that lives here, we won't even know when it goes missing."

Charli Tucker, a senior, took small pieces of the white clay and molded it around her wire armature shaped like three seahorses.

"I'm doing a vignette. A lot of kids are doing endangered animals, which is very cool," she said.

One of those was Hannah Demaray, who was highlighting the extinct passenger pigeon in her sculpture.

Senior Laura Snider worked to turn her sketch of a cardinal roosting on a branch into a 3D likeness with clay. She said Conservation in Clay melds together her interests in art and biology.

"I like it. I hadn't tried sculpting. And my concentration for my career is biology. So it's both together," she said.

The project is funded by several local businesses and organizations, including Patriot Auto Group, Jim Moore State Farm, Schwegman Insurance and Financial Services, Tulsa's Ziegler Art and Frame and the Oklahoma Sculpture Society. The effort also received an Allied Arts and Humanities grant from the Bartlesville Community Foundation.

Fogle is enthusiastic about the future of the project.

"It would be awesome for this to be a series, like maybe next time bringing in painters," she said. "This kind of small-group program maybe doesn't make a big splash, but it's a deeper, more sustainable experience for these kids."