By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Ortonville

– They did the mash. They did the Monster Mash. And it was a high school and elementary smash.

On May 19, the Harvey Swanson Elementary School library was filled with creatures, their creators, and plenty of smiles after first and second graders who had drawn monsters were surprised with matching sculptures created by Brandon High School students.

“I think it’s awesome!” said Dominic Morearty, 7, as he gazed at the yellow tentacled sculpture made by Emma Moriarty and Hope Feijoo, BHS seniors, who had used Dominic’s drawing to bring his idea to 3-D life. “I dreamed about it first in my head and then I made it.”

“I like that we got to make a kid happy,” said Emma.

Brandon High School art teacher Jamie Slot presented the idea of the collaborative art project to Jody Daniels, who teaches art at the elementary and middle schools. In the project, Harvey Swanson Elementary students drew pictures of monsters using crayons under the tutelage of Daniels, who instructed them on using principles and elements of art and design.

The pictures were then brought to the high school students in Slot’s art classes, who recycled old clay and created ceramic sculptures to mimic the drawings.

High school students were only given primary colors and black and white in the project in which they learned to color mix in order to achieve the colors the younger students used in their drawings.

“I had no idea how much fun this would be and how much the high school students would enjoy this,” said Slot. “I have just loved seeing them get so excited about making these monsters and putting so much effort into a project they are making for young students that they don’t even know.”

Kirsten Siver, a BHS junior, was excited to return to her former elementary school with a sculpture she made for Eric Rose, 7, who said he loved the tentacles and three heads on the monster.

“I”m not familiar with clay, I feel inventive,” said Siver. “I liked the idea and his expression.”

She smiles as Eric, asked what he thinks about his sculpture, responds, “I love it!”

Troy Wychuyse, 7, had a similar sentiment about his monster sculpture, created by BHS freshman Brendan McClusky.

“I feel happy,” said Troy. “I didn’t know my monster was going to be so big. I like it because it has so much detail.”

While his monster is larger than most, his moniker is short because Troy is “not good at big names,” and friendly-sounding. The green creature with four eyes, four arms, two legs and two toothy grins, is known as “Bob.”