WAYNE ZEBZDA'S ART

 

This work is composed of images the which 4th grade of children of Kalaheo school  helped design.  We were looking for a secret language, something based on petrol-glyphs and other abstract  symbols .  The concepts could  express emotion as well as objects , people , or events  .  The result forms a dialogue and marks a point in time ,  like a time capsule.  Each symbol has a meaning maybe known only to it's creator.  Poke man, computers, centipedes,and space ships are just a few symbols composing this secret language.  Some of them take on multiple meanings. I have composed them into a "tower of babble " structure so to speak (a tiara of babble) The sculpture is made of formed and welded aluminum pipe .

In and interview with the Gaden Ilse News  by Anne E O'malley...full interview in 2002 by Anne E Omalley

How do you involve kids in creating something from point zero? Where do you begin? The answer was astonishingly simple.

“We started studying how to think abstractly,” says Zebzda.

 “I drew a simple check mark on the board and I said, OK, what is this?”

They got it pronto. “A check mark,” they called out.

Then Zebzda said, “On your sneaker.”

The students chorused back, “Nike!”

Before long, kids were drawing symbols to represent emotions, themselves, and more. Abstraction had gone from concept to implementation.

 “The important thing was just starting, and making a mark on a piece of paper,” says Zebzda, who worked with over 100 students in a variety of classes. “That’s the beginning of exchanging ideas.”