Charlotte Harobin ‘22 started sculpture during 3D Foundations in 9th grade, and continued taking sculpture classes for the remainder of her time at the Upper School, eventually making Honors Sculpture in junior year. Throughout elementary and middle school she also was in band, but had to decide when entering the Upper School whether to keep band or choose visual art; ultimately she went with art, feeling that “sculpture was the best route” for her.
Currently, she is working on a pair of butterfly wings made out of plexiglass and resin, which is a senior tradition in the sculpture class. The materials she used help make it “look like it’s made out of stained glass”. Some other images depicted on the wings are birds, cherry blossoms, lilies, and koi fish.
Other notable projects include a chess board and her recreation of Medusa’s face. Her favorite project is the chess board because she had a lot of fun making it and really liked the way it turned out. The theme of the chess board was a forestry scene with one side being “natural mushrooms” and the other being “Alice in Wonderland type psychedelic mushrooms”. She thinks that Medusa’s face was one of the most challenging projects she worked on because she had to make the face and then each of the individual snakes on her head.
In reflection, she loved taking sculpture class and also having Ms. Ritz for all four years in the Upper School to the point where Ms. Ritz is confident in her work and allows her to have “pretty much full creative freedom” in her projects. Outside of school, she only does art recreationally. While she doesn’t plan to pursue any sort of art major, she definitely would love to continue it as a side hobby and take some classes in college.
Her personal experience with the class was “really good”, and the only thing she wished was that she was more “daring” with her projects in freshman and sophomore years. She “played it safe” for a lot of them because she thought that was what she was supposed to do, but looking back she felt she “had a lot more potential to make my projects more exciting.” Her advice as a senior is to “take risks with your projects and don’t be afraid to try to be original and creative!”