It was a pleasure to meet James Lawson, who's beginning his own journey in sculpture at John McGlashan.
It'd be easy to overlook the modest wee shed out behind the John McGlashan art rooms - but it seems that in this school there is a bit of magic happening in every nook and cranny.
That same shed is where you'll find James whenever he has a spare moment away from his studies - covered in Oamaru stone dust and loving every minute of chipping away at his new sculpture.
James was introduced to sculpting through our Year 9 & 10 arts week, where the boys spent the afternoon learning to sculpt Oamaru stone with our own Mr Glen Clark. Since then, he'd continued with painting and art in general - but he always wanted to give sculpting a proper crack (and why wouldn't you with Mr Clark and Mr Jones around!).
When James showed me his work, I was impressed by how well he was replicating the fabric ripples of a shirt - making whitestone look like cotton can't be an easy task!
And there's some clever thinking that's gone into it. We talked about how a lot of great sculptures tend to feel like they've always been there, as they reflect and complement the environment they're presented in. As James' work is to be displayed around John McGlashan, he's chosen to theme it around the uniform, adding his own ideas to the canon of what it means to be a McGlashan student. The sculptures play on what it means to be individual - expressing freedom of choice within the structures that surround us and ultimately changing them as we grow.
It's a pretty rare opportunity to be able to sculpt at school - and I was interested to learn that James was able to pursue his passion because John McGlashan offers the International Baccalaureate (IB). "The programme for arts in particular is far superior to what's available in NCEA" - according to James, who is a big supporter of the additional freedom allowed by IB. "It's less focussed on how you do something and more focussed on real-world outcomes".
James did concede that taking on IB is a bit more work! But he says it's definitely worth it when you get to develop the things you enjoy doing the most.
Keep an eye out for James' sculptures on display around campus in Term 3.
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