Art students in Scott Smith’s ceramics classes have a heart for pets, and they want you to have one also.
Specifically they want you to buy a ceramic heart they have created. Smith said his students at Lawton Public Schools Life Ready Center call the project Hearts for Hounds and proceeds from the sale will be donated to a local veterinarian to offset the cost of helping injured pets.
Smith said the project really began last year when students noticed on social media that several pet owners couldn’t afford vet bills to care for their injured animals.
“Artists are generally very tenderhearted; these are kids who love pets,” Smith said.
Smith said funds raised from the sale of the ceramic hearts will be donated to the Needy Pet Fund at Freeman Veterinary Clinic, 1702 NW Ferris. Here’s how it works: Pictures of the ceramic hearts that students have made will be posted to the Life Ready Center’s Facebook page on Feb. 23. The hearts will sell for $20 on a first come, first serve basis. Buyers may click on the heart they want to buy and make cash payment at the school, 702 NW Homestead. The hearts will be available until they are all gone, Smith said.
“This is a way for them to give back to the community,” Smith said. “These are not something you can go to the store and buy. It goes for a good cause.”
Smith said he anticipates about 60 ceramic hearts being available for sale.
Students actually are making two hearts: one to sell and one to keep. The hearts take on many forms, since students were limited only by their imagination. There’s a heart with football laces on top, one that resembles a basketball, another that looks like a grilled cheese sandwich and even an anatomical heart.
“There are lots of apples with worms,” Smith said.
Khali’ah Newton’s heart resembles a chocolate heart with long strands of clay on top for the drizzle.
She plans to paint the heart brown with some yellow to resemble caramel.
“I thought if I made a heart that looked like chocolate, they might like it,” she said of prospective buyers.
She said the heart she made to keep has bandages and Band-Aids on it; she plans to add some stitches later.
“I don’t know what I was going for, but I thought it was cute,” Newton said.
Andrea McAnerney said she made a cat heart to sell and one of a dragon to keep.
“Since I have a cat at home, I decided to do that,” she said as she worked on the cat’s face, which she plans to paint in pink and purple.
She said her favorite part of the project is seeing what other students have done.
“I like the honeycomb one someone made,” she said.
Rain Cassil made a heart with a key, a peep hole and buttons for eyes as the heart she will sell. She plans to paint the heart white with black dots and paint the objects on the heart different colors. Her second project is a jewelry box for “my weird earrings”.
Smith said the project teaches students basic ceramic skills such as hand building and the stages of clay.
“This project expands into different kinds of sculpture,” Smith said. “They understand form better. They are not working from one angle, they are constantly rotating their piece and assessing it. The students learn patience. It’s hurry up and wait with clay. It’s all a waiting game.”
Students also are introduced to different painting techniques such as matte, satin and gloss.
“I’m so pleased with them,” Smith said. “I never did hearts before. I like to keep it fresh (for students who take his class more than once). Kids that do return, they just push it to the next level. The only thing holding you back is yourself.”