When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That’€™s exactly what Mrs. Renze did when the annual art trip got canceled last semester, leaving dozens of students disappointed and itching for something fun and exciting to do. Calling in two area artists, she assigned her students with a task: with the help of these artists, they were going to be making a tree mural.

To get everybody involved, each student got the chance to make at least four clay leaves and customize them by carving his or her name name into the finished piece.

“It’€™s cool because if you look really closely, you can tell who did what leaf,” said junior Hannah Yang. “Hopefully our names will be up there for a really long time and people can see what we did.”€

The students from 3D Art also found time to get in on the fun, and using various methods, created the piece hanging next to the tree.

“€œIt was really interesting, and everyone had a lot of fun doing it,”€ junior Jordan Jorgensen said. “€œI think the whole mural looks really good!”€

The two artists added their own contribution by making the branches of the tree. While merely standing outside of the media center and appreciating the beauty of these talented students’ hard work is one thing, the process of making such an intricate display is entirely another.

Simply creating the leaves required a meticulous system of shaping the clay, firing them in the kiln, coating them with a special blue liquid, and then having them pit fired. In the end, most students came out of the experience feeling proud of their work and glad that they had the chance to work with professional artists.

“€œI’m happy with the work we’ve done. It looks so cool up on the wall now that it’s finished!”€ Yang said. And as for the art trip? “I’€™m almost glad it didn’€™t happen. When else are you going to get the chance to do something like this?”