Visiting Artist Rebekah El-Gamal

Visiting artist Rebekah El-Gamal gave our fourth graders the opportunity to work with clay to create stacking bowls. She demonstrated the process and asked students to treat their clay tenderly, to keep it moist, and to consider their hands the best tools. “I work with clay because I love that it can be recycled,” Mrs. El-Gamal said. “It is very forgiving. It can be dried and then water is added to it and you can use it again and again until you fire it.”

The challenge of producing two pieces of art meant to be as identical as possible paralleled the work of renowned artist Robert Rauschenberg when he created “Factum 1” and “Factum 2” in 1957. “I wanted to share these works with the students and lead them in a ‘see, think, wonder’ technique,” said MaryJo Allegra, our Lower School art teacher, who developed the day’s lesson with Mrs. El-Gamal. “My intention was to allow them to see how they are two similar images and each one of them is individual and different, yet they are a partnership.”

Savannah R. said she enjoyed working with clay and using paper geometric patterns to add texture to the four bowls she completed. Art class is always fun, she said. “We have fun activities every single time.”

Mrs. El-Gamal compared young learners to clay. She said she appreciates how teachers at Friends Academy help them maintain open and caring hearts while also encouraging them to ask as many questions about their world as possible. “The teachers are very special at Friends Academy,” she said. “This is why my children come here.”

Our fourth-grade students thanked Mrs. El-Gamal for her visit by presenting her with cards they designed that feature advice she gave them during a previous virtual lesson. “Clay is forgiving, yet it remembers,” they wrote. “Whatever you do, put love into it.”