DRIVES CREATIVITY
BY SYDNI MOORE { }
CLAY IT LIVE ART COMPETITION
Students sat at cafeteria tables,
molding gray blocks into interesting
shapes; they worked on pottery
wheels, forming vases and bowls;
and they created in teams, hand-building
working clay into animals, objects and
more.
Nixa High School held a live clay competition
Saturday, Feb. 2. “Clay It Up” welcomed
students from Ozark, Kickapoo
and Parkview to test their ceramic and
hand-building skills in one or more of six
separate categories.
“It’s easy for drama and choir to have
these events for people to come watch,
but it’s harder for the visual arts to have
a show at the end (of a semester) and say,
‘Okay, this is what I completed,’” Nixa ceramics
teacher Ryan Widel told the Christian
County Headliner News. “To be able
to show people the process, I think, is really
cool.”
Widel thought of the idea for a live clay
competition last summer. He estimates
he’s been putting the event together
since September.
“Quite frankly, I’m surprised I didn’t
think of it sooner,” he said. “I’ve never seen
anything like this before, so I’m really excited
to be able to start it.”
Seniors Abigaile Janes and Eric Hunlock
were two of Nixa’s seven competitors.
They practiced techniques they planned
to utilize leading up to the competition.
There were six categories: three completed
on a pottery wheel and another three
through hand-building. Some were accomplished
in pairs or groups, while others
were up to individuals.
Hunlock competed in the individual
pot-throwing event.
“I actually have an at-home studio,” Hunlock
said. He hopes to be an art teacher
someday. “Mostly, on my own time, I’ve
been practicing throwing height.”
Hunlock said he likes to create vases,
though he’s working toward making better
mugs and bowls on his own time.
“I’m just going to go in and I’m going
to throw whatever I feel like throwing,” he
said, prior to the competition. “I normally
just let it come to me. When I try to throw
a specifi c shape, it ends up coming out
worse than I imagined.”
Janes said she competed in the area’s
fi rst female wrestling competition, also at
the high school on Saturday.
“I’m going to lose, like, six minutes of
my time,” she said, explaining her need to
leave early for the wrestling meet. “That
will be hard.”
With a two-hour limit for each category
of the competition, the artists knew that
every minute counts.
Widel said many of the Nixa students
participating aren’t athletes. He said the
opportunity to perform with a little nerve
was a good experience for them.
“Some of them were nervous thinking
about going up against somebody else,
like, ‘Oh, do I have enough time to do this
and that?’ So, I think that in itself is a great
teaching moment,” Widel said.
First-place winners took home $25 gift
cards to B&B movies. Second-place winners
received $10 Amazon gift cards.
Competitors were judged by three southwest
Missouri ceramics professionals,
Michael Ashley of College of the Ozarks,
Kevin Hughes of Missouri State University
and David Lewis of Nixa’s L&R Specialties.
“They’re judging on, essentially, whatever
they want to,” Widel said prior to Clay
It Up. “They’re going to know the categories
and they’re going to know how much
time the students have, and that’s pretty
much it. If they want to judge more on
technique and craftsmanship than creativity,
then that’s up to them.”
Clay It Up attendees also had the opportunity
to get their own hands dirty—
for $5, they could dip their hand into a
colorful slip, print it onto a tall vase made
by Widel, and have their name entered
into a raffl e for the chance to win it later.
The money raised went toward ceramics
classes, the school’s ceramics club and a
scholarship fund.
Additionally, students’ ceramic works
were on display inside the high school’s
library. Originally, they were supposed to
be at Nixa’s Main Event Center.
“We had to change the venue, which is
good and bad,” Widel said. “It’s good because
it’s all under one venue, but it’s bad
because now the pieces are sitting on library
bookshelves instead of on pedestals
in a gallery. I wanted it to be a little more
special.”
Either way, Widel said he was proud to
showcase what his art students were capable
of. He fi gures the kinks will work
themselves out as the event develops
over the next few years.
“I know a lot of my former students will
say, ‘Why didn’t you do this while I was
there?’ And these kids in a couple of years
will hopefully see how big it is and say,
‘Aw, I wish it would have been that big
when I was there,’” Widel said.
He explained that Branson and Willard
schools were also invited to compete, but
they declined. Widel has plans for the future
to help schools with smaller ceramics
programs be able to participate, too,
including allowing students to only pay a
fee for the competitive category they enter
in to.
“Hopefully, it will get much, much bigger.”
20 THE NEST NIXA PUBLIC SCHOOLS MAGAZINE SPRING 2019