High Point students create stained glass masterpiece

WANTAGE — The principal of High Point Regional High School was just looking for something to brighten up a boring wall in the main office of the school.

What he got is a masterpiece.

More than 60 art students worked for more than three months to create an original stained glass window that is framed in a custom-made, lighted shadow box that now hangs on that wall in the main office.

"It is a wonderful work of art," Gregory Youngman said. "It captures the brilliance of our students and shows their dedication and hard work. I am very proud of them."

The art work is a stained glass rendition of the view of the High Point Monument from the school, constructed in the style of the famed stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, the son of Charles Louis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Co. in New York City. Students studied his work at the Museum of Modern Art this year as well as other works of the 1800s Art Nouveau era.

The High Point stained glass window is a tribute to Tiffany's work. Each piece of glass was hand cut to fit perfectly in its place like a jigsaw puzzle. Each glass piece was secured in the Tiffany style of soldering copper tape over the seams of the individual glass pieces, locking them in place.

According to Erin Meyers, the art teacher who organized the project, the students did a great job working as a team and meeting the goals they set for themselves to create the final product.

"This project was aligned with the philosophy of High Point, which supports real-world applications of learning. We are pushing our students to set their own learning goals and evaluate their own work," Meyers said. "The final result is the assessment and honest measurement of their learning."

Students from Meyers' Crafts 1 & 2 classes, as well as students from the Independent Study Crafts class, worked on several aspects of the final project, from building the frame of the shadow box to creating and cutting the glass pieces. A few students took hold of the project and became the driving force behind its completion.

"Laura Moser made this the culminating project of her senior year independent study. She, along with a core team of artisans, including Matt Decker, Brittany Risdon, Tim Noon, John Ortiz, Jessie Armstrong and Hobie Drew, were the driving force of the project," Meyers said. "It was an honor to work with each and every one of them. Their enthusiasm and professional approach to this sophisticated project is apparent."

High Point senior Tim Noon was Meyers' "master glass fitter" on the project. "When I heard what the project was going to be for this year I knew it would be awesome," Noon said. "I just had to be part of it."

According to Meyers, Noon worked diligently to cut and grind more than 450 pieces of shaped stained glass that went into the art work. "Tim was so precise with his work; it really shows in the final project," Meyers said.

High Point junior Brittany Risdon was part of the glass-cutters "A-Team" that followed the project through to the end. The art student discovered what it is to suffer for one's art.

"There was a lot of grinding to get each piece of glass to fit perfectly in its place," Risdon said. "After a long time it gets painful on your hands. But it was worth every second to see the finished project up on the wall."

According to Meyers, the hands-on work in the classrooms is a powerful learning tool all on its own.

"In a world that is geared toward technology and mass-production, this work encouraged the art of slowing down, paying attention to fine detail, and using your hands to build and create something beautiful," Meyers said.