Woodworker's Journal 2001-25-2, страница 22

Carving Out Memories

By Joanna Werch Takes

Belmont Hill woodworking instructor Steven Kaplan says there's "about 10 more years' worth of space on campus" tor students' carvings.

April 2001 Woodworker's Journal

Organized Graffiti:

(Carving) Knives to the Walls

Students at the Belmont Hill School always leave their marks on the walls — just [ike they're supposed to. Since 1923, over 3,000 of them have picked up a chisel and created what woodworking instructor Steven Kaplan calls "organized graffiti": the 12" x 12" carved panel that's part of their graduation requirements.

It's illuminating to look at how subjects have changed over the years. Steven says. For example, if you look around one of the meeting rooms al the Belmont. Massachusetts private boys' school, he said, "You see a lot of war images. There's one of Mussolini running, with a symbol of Italy in the background; one with the face of Churchill; and another featuring .American warships on the waters. If you look at the dates and the names, it's I I, "45. '4(5. Those are images about the times." In contrast, he said, panels from the early 1990s are more whimsical, with subjects like advertising logos Tony the Tiger or Coca Cola'.

Whatever their choice of subject, the panels mean that the bays "leave their mark on the campus," Steven said. It's a tradition that dales back to the school's first headmaster. One reason the practice has continued, says Steven, is that the panels symbolize the boys' saying. I'm able to handle whatever you're going to give me.

"I tell my students that when you're 14,15 years old. you have very little control over your lives. You can't control whether you go

to school or not — they can barely control their bodies — but you can control what happens to a piece of wood. They tike that."

Even students who have never taken a woodworking class are expected to complete a panel. To help them out, Steven spends a 40 minute class showing them how to hold the tool and safely push it into the wood, then breaks the work down into a series of small tasks.

Student Breodan Koeniger works or carving a mahogany panel that's part ol his graduation requirements.