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Photo by Bob Pennell OSF actor Jamie Peck pours neoprene into a butterfly mask mold made by St. Mary's junior Laura Freel, right. Faces of things to come St. Mary's students learn mask making By VICKI GUARINO A butterfly, a sun god, an ape and other assorted creatures emerge from buckets of clay, plaster and neoprene. The art room at St. Mary's High School has taken on the look of a back-stage shop as students work through the laborious process of making masks under the guidance of mask maker and actor Jamie Peck. St. Mary's High School sophomore Joel Frank carves clay into a form for casting a neoprene mask. He is part of an advanced art class studying mask making. Students started the project just after Christmas break, first shaping clay forms of their designs. Then they submerged the clay in tubs of plaster to form molds. After pulling out the clay, students poured neoprene, a synthetic rubber, to create the masks. This week, students are wrapping up by painting features onto the stiff neoprene shells. "It tests your patience," conceded St. Mary's senior Heidi Durden. "It's not something you can whip out in a day." Just ask 10th-grader Joel Frank. He found he had to start over after days of work, all because of a bad batch of plaster. Out of the failure, however, came a new and better design. "It wasn't an ape, but I decided to make it an ape," he said as he carved lines into the clay to form what eventually will become creases in the ape's muzzle. The challenge for students has been to see steps ahead and create designs that can go through the inverted process of casting and come out looking right. The processes is a metamorphosis, a transformation, says Peck. And just about everything mask makers create in the process -- the clay form, the plaster mold and a good deal of the liquid neoprene -- eventually is thrown out. "It's a neat metaphor to play around with," says Peck. The concept led junior Laura Freel to fashion her mask after a butterfly, a creature that fascinates her for its ability to remake itself. "Hopefully it will turn out looking like a butterfly," she said as she stared at her plaster mold full of neoprene. Once a thin layer of plastic hardens at the bottom, along the plaster surface, excess liquid is poured off. The process is so difficult that Peck had some doubts about trying it with a bunch of high-schoolers. No teacher wants to present a lesson so difficult that everyone fails. Yet the lesson must be challenging to be rewarding. Peck's teaching is a fairly recent addition to a theatrical career. Primarily he is an actor, on stage with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. When he's off stage, he's often in his Ashland garage, creating masks for stage performances. His fanciful creatures have accompanied the Rogue Valley Symphony and enlivened Southern Oregon University theater. Peck studied mask making in this country and in Bali, where the craft is a prized traditional art. Two years ago, he coached SOU students through a mask-making session for their staging of Grimm's fairy tales. His term at St. Mary's was a first. Peck had never before tried to teach the complicated process to teenagers. Art teacher Lauren Sleat figured the eight students in her advanced class were up to the task and persuaded parents to put up the money for Peck's tutelage. Turned out that Sleat was right about her students. By the end of the week, after a few bungled starts, everyone had a mask. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA