Special to The Sentinel
Seventh-graders at Black River Public School, operate their art work "Freya Fairy" down Eighth Street in downtown Holland Tuesday.
Have you been "Spotted"? Giant animals strode up and down Eighth Street in downtown Holland, the majestic menagerie drawing curious looks from pedestrians.
Students from Black River Public School showed off their end-of-the-year art projects late Tuesday morning, donning such costumes as a dalmatian, rat, butterfly and even a "cat-bird."
"They were all like "yeah, that's cool," Middleton said. "I had kids wanting to drop out of their other classes to do this.
"The project was what I wanted, but the students designed what they would be and made them."
A culmination of Peter Middleton's Thinking Big 2004 class, the teacher got the idea for the costumes from the Bread and Puppet Theatre in Glover, Vt., and his students reacted enthusiastically.
the puppet, and Emily Teall, right,
Sentinel/Dennis R.J. Geppert
"It's got a cat head with a beak, and it has wings," TerAvest said of the hybrid creature. "This is the first year I've been in Thinking Big. We had so much fun trying to put them together. It was a lot of trial and error trying to get the things right."
While high schoolers put together the bodies, students like sixth-grader George Muyskens did most of the design, as well as making the heads and hands. Muyskens helped design the vampire.
"I was just drawing and came up with it," Muyskens said.
The costumes were as tall as 10 feet and stood up on poles. The poles were either carried by a student or strapped on to one hidden inside the costume. This gave the feel of "a giant backpack," Middleton said.
"I like to plan large-scale artwork. This one is a performance work."
Middleton said the students worked all day for more than three weeks designing and building the costumes. He added that carrying them around for two hours isn't easy, either.
"We actually finished one of them this morning," he said. "I think they will be physically exhausted when we're done."
The students' works will also be shown at the school's open house 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Thursday evening.
Contact Mike Genet at newsroom@hollandsentinel.com or (616) 546-4272.