Imperial Beach Eagle & Times

Posted by admin on February 9th, 2012

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Art Wheel School & Studio now Open In Imperial Beach Art Wheel School & Studio is now open at 133 Elder Ave. in Imperial Beach. Art Wheel provides opportunities for adults and children to explore artistic expression through clay. There is also current registration for children's mixed media classes. These may include clay, mosaic, sculpture, plasticine, fiber, drawing, print-making, painting, instrument-making, puppetry and more. Regular classes are limited to 10 students or less.For adults, hand building and wheel throwing with clay provide a de-stressing outlet in a busy life. For older adults, this can keep neurons firing to maintain a healthy brain through an engaging activity that is mentally and physically creative. Co-owner Jeffrey Kirkeeng explains, “Clay is a very exciting medium to work in and is accessible to people of all ages and skill levels. Throwing on the wheel is rewarding, relaxing and meditative all at the same time. Students are often surprised to learn how much they can do with their hands with some basic hand-building techniques such as pinch, coil and slab.”and for children there are multiple benefits. Inspiration for the school includes providing an opportunity for children to build confidence and self-esteem while being happy developing creativity. “Creativity is a key component to success in most cutting-edge fields and yet opportunities to develop creatively in school are not sufficient for some local children,” said co-owner Elisabeth Shapiro. “Art Wheel hopes to fill this gap.” That being said, when a current 10-year-old student recently was asked about the benefits of her experiences at Art Wheel she replied, “It's just fun! You'd have to ask my mom about anything else.”In addition to traditional classes, Art Wheel offers the opportunity for family groups to enjoy the clay experience together. said Elisabeth, “this summer family groupings who have appreciated this opportunity at Art Wheel include a fianc? and fianc?e, a family of five, a preschooler and his mother as well as a teen and parent pair.” For small children and babies, Art Wheel makes hand and foot prints and hand and foot 3-D clay impressions by appointment. To make the process more entertaining, pre-school and older children (and toddlers who are ready) are invited to take an active role, decorating the hand-made tile or other object that carries their hand and/or footprints. Alternatively, parents, grandparents or other relatives may add their own customized touches. Art Wheel cleans up the prints and upon request will add the child's name and age or other details. The resulting keepsakes may be treasured for many years.There are also drop-in activities available for families and groups. For example, to remember their days at the beach a family from Arizona recently created a beach scene with 3-D clay impressions of all of their toes in the sand. Groups may also plan small events at Art Wheel where catering can be arranged in the lovely outdoor patio and garden space. other Art Wheel opportunities include team-building projects. For students who are interested, they may also work with Jeff on incorporating iconography and images from different cultures into their work. this is something Jeff has always done in his own ceramic work and paintings. Jeff earned his bachelor's degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. As part of his degree, he studied both the fine arts and literature of Asia. he also is interested in and has incorporated the iconography from the Americas and other continents into his own work. Jeff's work has been shown in Boston, Jerusalem, Washington D.C., La Jolla and San Diego. while he took a break from his life as an artist to pursue other interests, he is happy to have his hands back in clay and to be passing this joy on to others.Long term plans include expanded subject offerings beyond clay to other arts and crafts including weekend workshops, seminars and guest artist presentations. Possible offerings include painting and drawing, including plein-air classes to take advantage of Art Wheel's unique garden setting just steps from the pier and the beach and three blocks to the nature preserve. other offerings may include slump glass, puppetry, instrument-making, beading, silver clay and print-making.Art Wheel has an indoor studio as well as an outdoor fair-weather work space. not only is the outdoor workspace available for classes, but it may also be rented by artists under a variety of options including guaranteed time slots and drop-in memberships. The outdoor garden environment includes several varieties of bamboo for shade and an herb garden that includes lavender, oregano and rosemary for fragrance and color. The walkways and patio are mosaics that Jeff created from brick and a variety of stone. Art Wheel has pottery wheels, a large gas kiln and electric kilns, industrial clean up sinks, and storage for student's current work.Art Wheel has handicapped accessible parking, restroom facilities and walkways. In addition to on-street parking, the Elkwood Port Parking lot is directly behind Art Wheel. Art Wheel is also steps from the Pier Plaza bus stop. and of course, as a true Imperial Beach institution, students are invited to walk, skate or bike over.more information is available at www.artwheel.net. Art Wheel also has a Facebook fan page where fans can see recent photos of projects, classes or art fresh out of the kiln, depending upon the day. a link for the fan page is available on the website. Contact Art Wheel by e-mail at registration@artwheel.net or by phone at 619-342-4169.