Braeden Sanborn

Bringing an idea to life, senior sculpture student Braden Williams begins construction on a book-based sculpture. The sculpture concept revolves around fortune telling, which Williams will evoke with a head sculpt, sporting a third eye. “It’s [the eye] a bigger focus on that face. It’s the main focus. Gotta put a lot of detail into that,” Williams said.

Old library books transform into works of art as the sculpture class begins a new project.

“We get to recycle old books that may just be thrown away anyway. We’re giving it a new life in a different medium,” senior sculpture student Jasmine Bronson said.

Art instructor Nancy Druia’s second hour sculpture class starts working on book-based sculptures. The class is using old library books to build their projects. Select sculptures will be displayed in an art-centered space in the back of the media center.

In March, Druia made plans with help from Leadership One teacher Amber Bronson to revamp a small portion of the media center by making it an art centered space. To start the process, students sorted through various library books, some which haven’t been read for decades, to discern whether they should be kept or used for other purposes. 

“We’re essentially taking the books out of there [the media center] to put them back and have them different,” senior sculpture student Braden Williams said.

With Friday, May 9 as a due date, the sculpture class recently started planning their specific sculptures. While there are few guidelines, the students need to relate their sculpture to the content of a book of their choosing, whilst utilizing the book’s pages in some way.

“The book itself, whatever they choose, has to kind of speak to them, if you will. It has to resonate,” Druia said.

The assignment is in its early stages, but students like Bronson and Williams have already pitched designs. Bronson plans to use a large hardcover book to create a sculpture depicting a cat jumping through a hole, aligning with the book’s animal subject matter, while Williams begins construction on a fortune-telling-based sculpture.

“I would like kids to think, okay, these maybe these are books that haven’t been checked out or read since 1977,” Druia said. “But now they’re going to look at the book and kind of bring it back to life in a different way.”