A lasting impression

More than 450 Dundee Highlands Elementary pupils made a lasting impression on their school recently, and spent a day getting their hands dirty in the process.

The children, ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, each spent a morning at ClayWorks Studio, part of the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park at historic Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake. There, they made clay tiles that will form a 22-foot mural mosaic in their school's front hallway.

With help from ClayWorks art instructor and Dundee resident Pam Maxwell, the children made tiles depicting their school, their neighborhood, Fox Valley's wildlife and themselves.

The mural, entitled "Look Inside Our Community," will be a permanent display inside the school's main entrance.

"I think they're pretty in awe of the whole idea," Maxwell said. "Most of the kids have never seen anything like this before."

More important than the symbols the children chose to represent their community -- kindergartners pressed their handprints into clay while older children made tiles shaped like buildings, leaves, birds and fish -- is the chance to be part of a large, permanent art project, Maxwell said.

"Teachers have so many things to do," she said, "it really doesn't fit in well with exposing kids to creative work."

"They have 30 or 40 minutes to fly through an art project," Maxwell said, "and in some schools they might only get that three or four times a year."

For many of the children, the most important part of the experience was the clay itself.

"The best part for them is getting their hands on a wet piece of clay," Maxwell said. "Most of these kids have never had a real piece of clay in their hands, and they love the experience of having something they can just squish and shape."

The children might also learn a lesson in patience. The last pupils finished their clay tiles earlier last month, but they won't see the finished product until next spring.

Meanwhile, Maxwell will help them glaze the tiles, and she will spend about two months firing the tiles to harden them.

"I've worked on projects this big with elementary kids before," Maxwell said, "and they like to see the process of how it all comes together."

The experience of working on a long-term art project may have an equally lasting impact on the children.

"I love the Dole Mansion," one third-grader wrote in a letter to Maxwell. "Maybe when I grow up, I can come work there, too."