The Tompkins chapter of the National Art Honor Society will be erecting a three dimensional seal to be placed in the upstairs rotunda next month. For the past three months, National Art Honor Society has been creating a seal to hang opposite the ‘T’ in the rotunda. It depicts a falcon and the school’s establishment date. Once finished, it will be 8-feet tall and feature multiple levels.
“Mr. Grisdale had the idea to get the seal done after seeing the mural we did for the wrestling gym last year. Once he said the work quality was high from the National Art Honor Society, he approached us about doing the ‘T’ logo upstairs straight onto the wall as an actual mural.” said art teacher McKenzie Grimm.
The Tompkins administration approached Tompkins’ National Art Honor Society and Grimm last year to create a mural for the wrestling gym. This mural was the first art piece the organization worked on for the school. The second will be the new seal which was designed by Grimm. Grimm is excited that NAHS has another chance to showcase the members’ abilities as well as their immense Falcon Pride through artwork.
“I had the idea to add levels to make it three dimensional. We’ve been working on it since December, on and off for three months. It will be done in April,” said Grimm.
The school has also considered creating a mural for the the baseball dugout. Because a project of that complexity and size takes a long time, it is not finalized yet. Grimm says there are a number of projects that are scheduled, but the lack of time left in the school year is difficult to plan around. NAHS collected funds for the 2016-2017 school year from the Art Extravaganza at the beginning of the year and uses this money to create the art pieces. Using using the funds from the Art Extravaganza, NAHS buys the material needed to complete the projects, like gallons of wall paint for murals, and giant boards of plywood for the seal.
“Usually (the administration) just say what they want and then ask us if we can make it happen. If it’s art related, then we have a lot of great artists in the National Art Honor Society,” said Grimm.
National Art Honor Society is open to those who have an exemplary GPA and are also in an upper level art class. Each member must complete a certain number of volunteer hours, a majority of them for working on art pieces at Tompkins.
“The members come in after school, sometimes everyday, and work on the project until it’s done. You have to be committed,” Grimm.
