Holly Jo Camp Talks To FAB!
As the parent of a 7th grader I had not had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Holly Jo Camp, K to 5th grade art teacher extraordinaire, during the 2018-19 school year. One of the highlights of my first year with FAB has been getting to know Holly Jo. No one could have been more thrilled to learn that we were going to hold an art exhibition and no one could have been more enthusiastic about preparing for the event than Holly Jo. The original plan was to include one piece of art work per student – which for K to 5 would mean mounting and labeling 482 pieces of art work. A few weeks into the project Holly Jo asked me if we could include two pieces of art work per student – my response was a resounding yes. That’s correct, we were going to exhibit almost 1,000 pieces of art work for K to 5th grade! Going to school each week to help prepare for the art exhibition was such a wonderful experience – working with Holly Jo I saw just how much she cares about her students and their art education. I also got to see the amazing art projects being created by our students.
In recent times my appreciation for the job our teachers do has grown tremendously – that’s what a few months of home schooling will accomplish. However my appreciation for our art teachers had already been gained when Holly Jo asked me to assist with a 1st grade art class in which the students were to make clay fish. I will just say I left school at the end of the day, went home, opened up a bottle of wine and poured myself a large glass.
But over Spring Break COVID-19 fears grew and within a week life for all of us had changed completely. The art exhibition was canceled…..or was it?!? I learnt that Holly Jo Camp was not going to let Covid-19 defeat her when Martin Longoria and I received an email from her proposing that we hold a virtual art exhibition. That was on the 8th of April. Somehow, thanks to their love for FCA Frisco and the students they teach, Holly Jo and Martin put together the virtual art exhibition in just one month.
So just how DID they make it happen? I talked to Holly Jo this week to find out more.
Q: “Holly Jo – what made you so determined to make the art exhibition happen?”
A: “I just wanted these little students to be celebrated. I had told them all they would have a show and that each of them would have a piece of art exhibited and so I wanted them to have their show.”
Q: “So how many hours of work did it take to create the K to 5th grade virtual show?”
A: “I did not keep count of the hours – but it was a LOT!”
Q: “So just how did you go about it?”
A: “Well, there were plenty of steps to go through. First of all I had to take down all the art work on the walls and collect together all the art work from the student’s folders and create a stack of work for each child. I then looked through all the pieces of art work for each child and selected which piece I thought was their best finished one.”
Q: “Originally Holly Jo your plan was to let the students select which pieces of art work they wanted included in the show, is that right?”
A: “Yes, it was. I wanted them all to make their own decisions about which pieces we would show. But that was just not possible for the virtual show. In selecting the pieces I wanted to share a variety of art assignments but that was a challenge too as some of the pieces I wanted to include in the art show were not finished, like all the beautiful clay food our 5th graders made.”
Q: “So what were the next steps?”
A: “Well, then I had to put the pieces for each class into alphabetical order and photograph them. Martin Longoria suggested making a box from white board with a hole in the top of the box to put my phone in which is what he did to photograph the 6th to 9th grade art work. That meant I could just place each piece of art in the box and take a photo with my phone. It worked very well although not all the art pieces were the same size and so I had to make adjustments for distance.”
Q: “I gather there was an issue with the original name tags created too?”
A: “Yes – we had already printed and mounted two name tags per student to use in the art exhibition. But the names were too hard to read in the photos so we had to print off new lists of names with a larger print size, cut them all out and fix them to the art work. All over again.”
Q: “So then what was next?”
A: “Well then I had to edit and crop each photo and upload all 482 photos to my computer to compile them into a powerpoint document. I have made powerpoint presentations of art work before but I have never had to take and include so many photos!”
Q: “So now that all the hard work is done and your students have the show you promised them, how do you feel?”
A: “I’m glad I did it!”
Q: “So Holly Jo before we conclude this interview I’d like to ask you just a few more questions. First of all, what are you most looking forward to about the next school year?”
A: “What I most look forward to each school year is beginning fresh. Every year gets better as I get to know the children and know what they have already learnt and what they are capable of. I feel in the first two years at FCA Frisco I have taught them the basics they need to know and from here things will just get better and better.”
Q: “Are there any special art projects you would like to accomplish this next school year?”
A: “I would love it if we could do a school wide art project, something that all the students could contribute to – maybe a mosaic, or have each child create a tile to make a path to the school garden. I’m thinking about it, but I just love the idea of everybody playing a small part in a big project.”
Q: “I think I already know the answer to this last question – but for our FCA Families who might not, can you tell us what one item you would most wish for to grow the K to 5th grade art program?”
A: “A kiln!”
Q: “Can you tell us why?”
A: “ALL my students love working with clay. When I tell them “we’re working with clay today” they all shout and clap. There are so many fun projects you can do with clay. Also I believe having a kiln would broaden the student’s thinking – they would learn the stages of making items from basic clay to greenware to bisque firing to glazing and glaze firing. They would be able to follow the metamorphosis and understand how everyday things that they use are made.”
Q: “Are there any other reasons a kiln is top of your wish list?”
A: “Yes, right now we use air dry clay for our clay projects. There is really no process we go through, we make things, then dry and paint them. But the biggest issue is that air dry clay is very fragile and breaks very easily and so all too often clay art work gets broken in the process of trying to take it home. It breaks my heart when the kids work gets broken before it reaches home.”
Q: “Holly Jo is there anything else you would like to say before we conclude this interview?”
A: “Yes, I am looking forward to next year’s art exhibition. It will be bigger and better as our students art work develops and I hope we can share it in person and not virtually!”
Q: “Thank you Holly Jo!”
Before Spring Break Holly Jo and I had begun investigating what would be the right kiln for our needs. We have a proposal put together and we would love to get this project started. The very first step required is to file a Commercial Interior Finish-Out Application Package with the City of Frisco. To complete this application requires the services of an architect and an electrical/mechanical engineer to prepare the application and submit the proposal along with plans, equipment information, lighting, plumbing and electrical alterations required. If any of you amongst our families can help with this first step, or in any way help us make Holly Jo’s greatest wish come true please let us know!