Black, brown, white and gray are the dominant tones of Vermont’s natural landscape in the first few months of the year. Birds provide a welcome burst of color before flowers start blooming — and their chirping is also a sign of spring.
In Burlington, Edmunds Middle School art teacher Judy Klima asked her students to look through a variety of photographs of Vermont birds and choose one for an art project. “Then we practiced torn and cut paper collage techniques. Students chose from assorted papers, old books, maps, letters, et cetera to create a collage of the bird,” she said.
Their colorful mixed-media creations caught my eye when Klima posted them on social media, which is how they wound up in Kids VT.
The artists expressed themselves not just through the bird they chose but also through the torn scraps they used for its backdrop — and, often, through the names of their creations: for instance, “On the Map,” “Looking at You” and “The Crow Who’s All Alone.”
Klima submitted some of her students’ pieces to “Winged Wonders,” a student art competition and expo sponsored by the Vermont Wildlife Education Fund; the deadline to enter is March 15.
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This article appears in Kids VT, Spring 2024.
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