Georgia Military College Preparatory School (GMC Prep) students enjoyed one last week of art with GMC’s art teacher Paige Barlow during High School Art Camp.
On June 6, summer camp came to a close alongside Barlow’s last class and last day at GMC. She retired after 30 years of teaching, with seven of those years being at GMC. Barlow joined GMC Prep in August 2017, bringing with her teaching experience from Putnam and Baldwin counties. She served as the middle and high school visual art teacher in the classroom, as a club mentor, and led her art students through many projects, such as Pinwheels for Peace.
“From the very first day she stepped into the classroom, Paige embodied the true spirit of education, inspiring and empowering countless students to explore their creativity and embrace the world of art,” states GMC Prep’s retirement spotlight.
For her final art escapade, Barlow designed a summer art camp with a variety of activities. Students designed mini art galleries, created a bas relief clay tile and plaster tiles, learned about digital photography, and made no-stitch identity patches.
“Our goal at the summer high school art camp was to explore different art processes,” wrote Barlow in an email. “It was a fun week exploring the arts.”
The first day began with students exploring shrink plastic and how it works to design mini art galleries complete with artwork on two walls, a wire sculpture and a decorated floor.
“The most fascinating part was watching their artwork shrink in a toaster oven to mini pieces of art,” said Barlow.
Then, students used a bas relief method and painted plaster tiles with gouache watercolors. Students combined clay, carving, and plaster to make a dimensional tile. When exploring this creation process, Barlow stated students use “critical thinking skills to reverse the image and carve the positive and negative spaces to make the molds.”
Moving on from clay and tile, students stepped into the world of photography. Every high school art camp student made a hand-built pinhole camera. According to Parallax Photographic, a photographic retailer, pinhole photography uses basic concepts of a camera including a light proof box, an aperture, and light-sensitive material to create photos. According to its guide on pinhole photography, light is passed through the pinhole to project an inverted image onto the paper or film on the opposite end of the camera. The distance between the pinhole and film determines the angle of view, so the shallower the depth, the wider the angle.
“We learned about using a DSLR camera and capturing bold shadows on a portrait. The students were inspired by Brandy Gonzalez's photography,” said Barlow. “Their pinhole photography images were amazing with soft black-and-white focused images,.”
After taking a photo, Barlow explained that they transformed GMC Prep’s kiln room into a darkroom and developed the photos in three chemicals: developer, stop bath, fixer, and then washed them with water. Next, students took a digital photo of their pinhole photo and inverted the image in Photoshop express to get a positive image. A positive image reverses the colors from the pinhole photo to create the final image.
Concluding the fun activities, students created a no-stitch identity patch to put on a canvas tote and painted crates.
“The bag was made to store art supplies,” said Barlow. “They made the cutest symbols, logos, and images as patches to describe themselves.”
As a teacher, Barlow has always worked to give students an extensive look at a variety of art, use their artistic talents to impact the community, and learn from professionals. She leaves a legacy to fulfill behind her and set off with one final look into her teaching. Starting next school year, Nancy Mason, from Putnam County, will take over her position.