Mitch Chappelear's finished piece

Sophomore Kyle Water

BUILDING UP BY TEARING DOWN

A piano being torn apart on a windy day sounds a lot like Stravinsky, but for Dr. Milt Heinrich’s class of 10 Dana College students, it was a lesson in “found art.”

Heinrich’s two-dimensional design class is a general education class, filled with students probably getting their last brush with art education. So when Heinrich heard about a few of Dana’s older pianos being replaced, he offered to help dispose of the instruments. They would offer a great opportunity to show how art lessons can be applied to many fields.

Take, for instance, freshman Mitch Chappelear’s work. Chappelear started the project by using a skill saw to de-limb one piano, while mentioning that this class requirement was actually fun. By the end, it may have seemed less so as he listened to Heinrich list the many details of his piece that broke established art rules.

“But look at it,” Heinrich said to the class. “It works. It’s almost a daring, in-your-face sort of thing. Sometimes the rules don’t matter.”
In between discussing the curvilinear aspects of the pieces and the use of positive and negative space, Heinrich also used them as examples of lessons in education and business, two of Dana’s largest majors.

“The visual is more interesting,” Heinrich told the class. “As students, it holds your attention longer.” Working on a project rather than studying it is a good educational technique whether your a college sophomore or a first grader.

And then there’s promotion, something Heinrich said is important whether you are a young artist trying to break in to the field or a small business trying to get by. “Getting people to see your work is the hardest part. You just have to keep trying,” he said.

Dana Review

Winter 2003

Fall 2002