New Hartford man turns class art into ‘BIG’ book

NEW HARTFORD — As a teacher at Peet Junior High School in Cedar Falls, Bill Close was known far and wide for the larger-than-life art projects that his students created. Now the New Hartford resident has turned the artwork into a book that he is selling in an effort to give back to others.
“Early in my teaching career I discovered one thing about junior high students — they loved things that were either really, really small and miniature or really big. That seemed to turn it on,” Close said.
“I was always fascinated by pop art and Claes Oldenburg,” he said. “Claus Oldenburg built monumental pop art structures all over the world. There are three in this vicinity, the spoon and cherry at the Walker Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis; Des Moines had the Crusoe Umbrella; and the Kansas City Art Institute had the giant shuttlecocks on the lawn. That always appealed to me.”
Read the full article in the August 18 edition of the papers.