Inspired Child
Owner: Border Star Montessori Elementary School
Artist: Lee Anne Snozak (designer), Paul Storms (ceramist), Paul Dorrell (installation, designer), Border Star students (artists)
Dates: Installed May 19, 2011; Dedicated May 21, 2011
Medium: stainless steel rods, ceramic, stoneware, cast glass (sculpture); concrete and brick (pedestal)
Description:
"Inspired Child" is the result of a collaborative effort between students at Border Star Montessori Elementary School, Border Star art teacher Lee Anne Snozek, professional ceramist Paul Storms and Paul Dorrell, owner of the Leopold Galley. The Border Star PTA and parents raised the funds for the work. Students in the upper grades worked on the sculpture.
Snozek designed and help create the piece. Storms, a Kansas City Art Institute graduate, and Snozek worked with students at the KC Clay Guild where they let the students design and create pieces for the sculpture while they learned more about the worlds of ceramics, glass and other types of art media. Dorrell assisted with the concept, including incorporating an old brick pedestal at the proposed installation site into the sculpture, and oversaw the installation.
The work is approximately 12 feet tall. The colorful materials and varying shapes of the elements on each of the rods gives the viewer many different perspectives from every angle. The sculpture will even wave slightly with the wind. Small commemorative plaques surround the concrete cap on top of the brick pedestal.
