A.T. Art Locker of the Month: Rachel Schwartzbaum

The high school lockers at SHS are known for their sterile emptiness.They are generally only filled with coats, if that. However, the AT Studio Art class is bringing color and creativity to SHS lockers. Students were given a lot of freedom. “The only constraint is that [the design] has to have a theme, be 3D [with] some form of 2D in it, [have] a title, and be documented,” explained SHS art teacher Nadine Gordon.

Rachel Schwartzbaum ’15 is a student in Gordon’s AT art class. “My personal goal was to create a fantasy world [where] somebody [could] open the locker and feel like they were in more than just a locker,” expressed Schwartzbaum.

Rachel Schwartzbaum's Locker
Rachel Schwartzbaum’s Locker

The design made effective use of few materials. For the grass, she used green construction paper to completely cover the walls of the locker. Schwartzbaum then formed a tree by making the trunk from thicker construction paper and acrylic paint, and creating the leaves from many different shades of green tissue paper. When positioning the tree, the leaves extended to cover the ceiling of the locker. Lastly, she formed the wishing well from what started out as a piece of cardboard. “[Gluing each pebble] took quite some time but I think it was a worthy endeavor,” revealed Schwartzbaum. “I was trying [to create] a little bit of magic.”

Schwartzbaum’s locker project, however, does not end here. The wishing well does not act as a simple object. In order for their dreams to become reality, the student body is expected to write their wishes on slips of paper anonymously and place them in the well. Schwartzbaum takes these slips of paper out on a regular basis, adds an illustration and tapes it to the front of the locker. “Since I did have an interactive project, it was really exciting for me to get to see all of the responses. I got a sense of the characters of people that I had never met before,” said Schwartzbaum. Members of the student body are impressed. “I think it’s so effective because she uses a really simple and widespread concept that everyone would understand but at the same time, she does it really well,” expressed Kimberly Zhu ’18.

The AT art class generally works in two dimensions so for most of Schwartzbaum’s classmates, this project is a step out for their comfort zone. However, for Schwartzbaum, this is the type of art she loves doing. Overall, she believes the project was a lot of fun and a good experience. “I love doing every little tedious aspect. That’s just what makes it a good finished project – when you really put yourself into it,” she gushed.

by Sneha Dey