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March 20, 2009

Etched in clay

Area schools work to make quadricentennial mural

By ROBIN CAUDELL

CHAZY — Shelby Gonyo gingerly pressed a piece of paper marked with a sailing ship against a slab of clay.

Then, she cut out the vessel that will be fused on a tile with a marine motif.

She is one of approximately 900 students in the nine Clinton County school districts creating commemorative tiles for the quadricentennial mural to be installed on an exterior wall of the Clinton County Government Center in Plattsburgh.

The project was the idea of Sandy Morse, who had seen a tile mural at Peru Central School. She contacted Bucky Seiden, the school project manager, who brought up the idea to Sue Burdick Young of Studio & Gallery in Jay, who was artist-in-residence for the mural.

"Bucky contacted me in late August 2008 and said they want to do this. 'Are you interested?' I pretty much said yes right away," Young said. "The Peru project was a huge amount of work in a short period of time. The sense of community that created was really cool. I was really glad to be part of that. I said, 'Let's do that.'"

VISUAL TIME LINE


The 35-foot-long mural will span 400 years of history and occupy the once ivy-covered facade of the building at the corner of Margaret and Cornelia streets.

"When they took (the ivy) down, they realized we have this bare wall here not looking so good," Young said. "They were thinking of some king of public artwork. They have to do a lot of work on that wall from the ivy. They have little suckers. They fused into the bricks."

The bricks need to be wire brushed then re-pointed.

"We need a flush wall to put this on. We hope by June we will be installing it. We will need most of the month to get it done."

The project, "Clinton County History Through the Eyes Of Its Children," is a visual time line tracing local history starting with First Nations to post-Civil War.

"There is such a rich amount of history," Young said. "There are so few areas where you have 400 years of history. I started doing some historical research that started blowing my mind."

Clinton County Historian Anastasia Pratt identified nine historic periods on which to focus the time line. Each school district was designated to make the tiles that were the best fit for them:

•  First Nations — Northern Adirondack Elementary School, Ellenburg.

•  1609 Samuel de Champlain, early French settlers — Northeastern Clinton Central School, Champlain.

•  1750-1776 Early settlers, Battle of Valcour — Seton Academy, Plattsburgh.

•  1780-1800 Settlement of the county — Chazy Central Rural School.

•  1806 Iron and industry — Ausable Valley Central School.

•  1812-1814 Battle of Plattsburgh, Stafford Middle School.

•  1815-1830 Early transportation — Beekmantown Central School.

•  1840 Dannemora Prison, Redford Glass Co. — Saranac Central School.

•  1850-1870 Underground Railroad, Industrialization — Peru Central School.

PROTECTED SPOT


The bottom portion of the mural depicts Lake Champlain.

"You have the land mass and all these different events that occur going left to right," Young said. "On the far left is an Indian maiden looking back toward history. She's holding a basket. After the Indian maiden, Samuel de Champlain is coming in a birch bark canoe with two Indians."

The mural is 35 feet wide, and its highest point (tall ships) is approximately 9 feet tall. All tiles will be completed by the end of April and bisque fired in May.

"The kids will glaze the tiles. Then the tiles will be fired full temperature."

This is possibly the biggest tile mural in the North Country, which is known for its treacherous freeze cycles.

"Luckily, the mural is under an eaves. It's really protected. It's a good spot."

Right now, the project needs installation funds.

"But we figure it will happen," Young said. "We're glad to be at the stage we're at working with the kids and having fun with it now. It's looking good."

E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com


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