Art teacher’s ‘mad’ project featured in national magazine

Things are speeding up for Seaford High School art teacher Michael Kerr. His first article for SchoolArts Magazine, a professional publication for arts educators, took so long to be printed that he almost gave up on it before it finally appeared in the magazine’s October 2018 issue.

His second contribution, published a scant 18 months after the first, involved almost no lead time at all, compared to the more than three years he waited to see the first.

Each number of the Ziff Davis publication contains what its editors call “clip cards” — detachable cards that feature illustrations of art lessons on the front of the cards and descriptions of the lessons themselves, as well as the materials needed, on the reverse.

The cards can be godsends for harried teachers in the perennial search for interesting and engaging projects. Kerr’s first full article detailed the use of cartoon and caricature as tools for self-exploration — and self-acceptance.

Kerr’s clip card sculpture lesson, entitled “Twisted Toy Design,” was a take-off on the popular Madballs toys from the 1980s. Using clay, acrylic paint and found objects, students created figures that ranged from spoofs on popular cultural icons to characters from their own imaginations.

“Art doesn’t always have to be so pretentious and serious,” Kerr, a 15-year veteran of Seaford Schools, said of the project. “There’s time for it to be straight-up crazy.”

Senor Emel Acar, whose work was featured on the front of the card, said her inspiration was the “really gross” Madballs. “I liked the freedom of the project,” she said, “and I liked using vibrant colors.”