The flames of imagination have been lit under five student artists at Eisenhower Middle School who are expressing themselves on a unique canvas.
The five are painting old firefighter helmets, which will be auctioned off at the Pecan Creek Volunteer Fire Department fundraiser Oct. 4. The fundraiser will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the fire station, 80 SW Deyo Mission Road.
Debbie Myers, finance secretary at Eisenhower High School whose husband and son are volunteer firefighters, set the project into motion. Last year, her son came to her with an idea. He was going to dispose of some helmets that were out of date. What did she think of turning them into works of art?
Myers contacted her friend and art teacher Sandra Dunn at Eisenhower Middle School about the project and Dunn quickly agreed.
“I love stuff like this. I knew the students would be excited,” Dunn said.
The helmets, which had to be sanded first, were delivered in the Spring semester. Two of the helmets were completed before school was out for summer break and a third was finished this semester. The last one is being painted and will be ready before the fundraiser.
Dunn said students were given free reign to choose what design they wanted to paint and what materials to use. Two students, McKenzie Simpson and Alexis Owens, each painted half a helmet. One side depicts a mountain scene and the other is swans swimming in a pond of water lilies.
The one painted by Taven Miller has orange and yellow flames with blues and purples on the face shield. Lauryn Graham’s has flames on one side and some characters she created on the other. She also included some words and phrases.
“The words are trying to encourage you,” she said. The word “power” is painted down the middle of the crown of the helmet. Graham said its message is that you can have power over what you control. Another phrase is “be true,” which she said is a reminder to be true to yourself and don’t try to change in order to be perfect for someone else. Another phrase is “you can do it.”
She said she wanted it to be colorful because she likes to make things pop.
“At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to go with. I wanted something that was expressive and colorful,” Graham said.
Graham said it took her a day or two to paint the helmet.
“Throughout the process I had more ideas come to mind,” she said.
Avery Vaughan is still working on the fourth helmet. She is drawing a moth on the top and plans to add greens and purples on the base. She said she had never drawn on anything besides paper.
“It’s a lot of fun. There were lots of hard parts to get to. The angles are hard. You have to pick up the helmet and paint the angles,” she said.
Graham and Vaughan said they enjoyed the project and hoped the buyers would enjoy their work.
“I hope they enjoy the pop of the color and the designs and the encouragement of the words,” Graham said. “I’m really happy, but also sad because I want to be able to keep it.”
“I hope they appreciate the time it took and all the things it took to make this,” Vaughan said.
Dunn said the helmets reflect the style of each individual artist. Miller’s is abstract and Graham’s style is graffiti. The other three artists chose nature scenes.
“I hope they gain confidence in their abilities. They got a lot of independence and I worked with them about their vision,” Dunn said. “They can see how important community is and they get to raise funds for firefighters.”
Myers thinks the helmets will be popular items at the fundraiser.
“It’s something unique,” Myers said. “They are going to want to bid on those and put them in their house or a fire station.”