BELLEVILLE – Officials with Art on the Square are happy to announce that Michael Gard, a highly lauded sculptor from San Francisco, has made his way to southwest Illinois this week.
Gard has been a featured artist at Art on the Square in Belleville, and now he is working with Belleville East High School students as this year’s artist for the High School Sculpture in the City Program.
“We are excited because this visit will coincide with a little art show being held at Belleville East this week,” said Ramona Effinger, Coordinator of Sculpture in the City for Art on the Square.
About 84 students are participating in the project with Gard, on April 27th and 28th, who is creating 100 two-inch wax spheres for the students to wrap wire around. Gard will then melt the wax and assemble it into a sculpture that he plans to have hanging from strings in a frame.
The school will get to keep the artwork and have it on display.
About Michael Gard
Michael was born and raised in London, he moved to San Francisco in 1994 and has maintained a full-time sculpture studio since 1995. His work entails using a wire weaving technique that he invented during lunch at school when he was 17. He uses upwards of 10 different knots to hold the wire in place and weaves around wax. He plans to teach the students 3 or 4 different knots. Michael says he is looking forward to working with students who will be about the same age that he was when he started sculpting. For more information on Gard visit http://michaelgard.com/
About Art on the Square
This is the 20th Anniversary show for Art on the Square. This year’s show will take place from May 13-15 and admission will be free. Founded in 2002, Art on the Square has been consistently ranked as the #1 and #2 in the nation by Art Fair Source Book. For more information on this year’s Art on the Square show, visit artonthesquare.com
