Undergraduate students Garrett Serrano and James Coquia launch their toy ball boat in Lake Mary last month as part of the Methods of Fabricated Sculpture class.

Sculpture students put out to sea

Twenty-one sculpture students showed that the best learning doesn't always take place in the classroom; sometimes it happens while their boat is sinking in the middle of a lake.

The students in Brian Painter's Methods of Fabricated Sculpture class tested their production skills by building a boat out of alternative materials. Then they tested their water crafts on Lake Mary in Flagstaff.

Boats were made out of materials ranging from steel, concrete, toy balls, styrofoam and papier-mâché. All of the boats floated—at least for awhile.

Undergraduate Katy Hasemeier, whose "house boat" was made from real estate signs, enjoyed the freedom and creativity to do what she pleased with the assignment.

"We learned that sometimes our art doesn't always end up the way we plan for it to," Hasemeier said. "It was all about trial and error, and knowing that it's still art when you're done, even if it doesn't float."