Watch: 'Kelly Clarkson Show' hosts Portsmouth art teachers, students (and their monsters)
PORTSMOUTH — A project bringing monsters to life earned art students and teachers from the Portsmouth school district a guest spot on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" in New York City.
Sarah Mundy, a visual arts teacher at Portsmouth High School, and Dondero School art teacher Adam Bastille were joined by high school junior Tyrnyn Moyer, 17, and 8-year-old second grade student Vivienne Walker on Tuesday’s episode of Clarkson’s NBC show. Clarkson, a Grammy Award-winning singer and winner of the inaugural season of “American Idol” in 2002, hosted the group to commemorate National Teacher Appreciation Week.
The Portsmouth art students and teachers discussed a collaborative project: Bastille’s second-grade Dondero students drew depictions of monsters, which were delivered to high schoolers in Mundy’s ceramics class. The PHS students turned the drawings of monsters into ceramic sculptures.
Mundy, an avid TikTok user promoting art education and students’ work, received a message from a producer of the show during April vacation regarding a video she posted about the project. Mundy, Bastille and the students were invited to tape the episode in New York City last week.
“Just by getting that visibility out there, it empowers the kids and keeps them going,” Mundy said Thursday.
The students and teachers filmed the episode with Clarkson in New York on April 30, exactly one week before it aired.
How Portsmouth students bring monsters to life
“We talked about creating texture and coloring and shading and outlining it to make it a refined drawing,” Bastille explained on the show. “The biggest success for me is when I saw all my second-graders (and) their artwork that they made, each monster and creature was different. They had their own personality, for sure.”
Bastille had his students sketch three different monsters, then choose one to send over to the high school ceramics students. Walker chose her blue-colored, crown-wearing, hook-handed monster she named “Hooky,” which Moyer was responsible for creating.
“I think my favorite part about the whole project was definitely making the hook,” said Moyer, the high school student. “It's like the heart and soul of the whole piece. And another great thing about it is with all the hair, I got to try a new glazing technique called mishima, which is basically where you take a needle tool and you make all these thin little designs.”
Moyer’s ceramic creature was then brought out to Walker to applause from the studio audience.
“Oh my gosh, that is so cool,” Clarkson said. “That’s heavier than I anticipated!”
Art teachers and Kelly Clarkson show appreciation for their teachers, too
Mundy, a Portsmouth High School graduate, has taught high school art for 10 years. Bastille has worked at Dondero for seven years after dreaming of becoming an art teacher as a child.
“I think I became a teacher because I really struggled to get through school,” Mundy told Clarkson. “Academics and the rigor of it was just really challenging and the art room was a safe space where I could express myself and work in clay. Now I'm actually really proud to be working at the high school where I went to school and I get to offer that space to the kids.”
“My high school art teacher really set me up for success,” Bastille said. “She was always there for me. I always wanted to be an art teacher at a young age. I had that dream. Even my elementary art teacher, she really inspired creativity in me because she did this choice-based art program, where I got to choose my own projects and develop and make my own projects. It was just amazing to me to be an artist at such a young age. It inspired me to be an art teacher.”
The show’s host gave her own nod to the importance of school art programs at the start of her successful life.
“(The) arts (are) what kept me in school,” Clarkson said. “You had to make a certain average to be able to participate in the arts programs and that's what kept me a better student than I would have been. It's a lesson to not get rid of the arts programs in schools.”
After Walker’s three-dimensional monster was presented to her, the second grader and Moyer took turns giving praise to their instructors.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Bastille. You make art class so fun,” Walker told her teacher. “You're funny and kind and I love when we have dance parties.”
“I just wanted to say thank you so much. You're an incredible teacher, a fantastic potter and just overall such an amazing person,” Moyer said to Mundy. “I've loved getting to know you and working with you. You always know how to guide us without just fully giving us the answers. We get to go through the path of finding out for ourselves. You're so great at getting everyone, especially me, to branch out creatively and try new things. On behalf of the entire Portsmouth (High) School, I just want to say thank you so much for all your hard work.”
Scholastic Corporation is donating 1,500 books to Dondero School and $5,000 to Portsmouth High School for art supplies, Clarkson revealed at the end of the interview.
Mundy plans to give Bastille $2,500 for his classroom needs and will spend her half on new shelves within the kilns in her classroom. She and the Dondero instructor hope to continue the monsters-themed project with students next year and later display all the finished artwork in an exhibit for all their pupils and their families to view.
The episode came the same week as the Portsmouth High School art department’s second annual “Fine Arts Night.” The free event will feature student art, performances and food made by the school’s culinary students.
The event will be held at 3S Artspace on Friday, May 10 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: 'Kelly Clarkson Show' hosts Portsmouth art teachers, students
