Warren Westerberg’s Art class was picked this year to provide ornaments for the Christmas tree in at the governor’s mansion in Olympia.
The theme for this year’s tree is “boats.” Students located historic photos of various watercraft with ties to Washington state. Vessels represented include Columbia River steamboats, lumber schooners, square rigged ships, state ferries, pleasure craft, fishing boats, native canoes, warships, and hydroplanes.
Using a vector drawing program, students outlined the various boats. The drawings were incorporated into ornament frames which were cut from lightweight plywood using a laser cutter. The cut frames were backed by watercolor wash backgrounds and assembled.
They will be on public display in the governor’s mansion throughout the Christmas season and then be incorporated in the state archives. The class is in the process of creating a second set of the ornaments they can take home.
Special Thanks go out to teacher Chris Shepard of the Cascadia Tech Academy Pre-Engineering program for his assistance with the laser cutting and Aletha Westerberg for her assistance with ornament preparation. This project could not have been done without their timely and substantial support.
During the second phase of the project members of the art class will visit Cascadia tech to learn about their programs and meet with La Center High School students who attend there.