Minnesota Valley Lutheran senior Claudia Weisensel poses next to her sculptured title: “64,529,028.” The sculpture was named in reference to map coordinates on the face. Weisensel’s scuplture was the winner of the People’s Choice Award given for The Grand’s recent Youth Art Exhibit.

NEW ULM – The people have spoken and Minnesota Valley Lutheran (MVL) senior Claudia Weisensel’s map themed sculpture is the top choice.

The Grand Center for Arts and Culture recently concluded a youth center art exhibit which featured the work of dozens of area high school arts students. The public was invited to vote for their favorite pieces at the exhibit and Weisensel’s chicken wire sculpture titled “64,529,028” was the winner.

Weisensel said she created the sculpture for an AP art class. In the class she was free do create the art she wanted and 64,529,028 was inspired by a face sculpted out of chicken wire. Weisensel said she had never seen chicken wire used this way and wanted to try it.

“I thought I would do it as a collage,” she aid. “I would used paper towels and portraits for the face.”

This first idea did not come together the way she expected…

“The chicken wire took me about three hours to do,” she said. “It was very difficult to cut.”

“My whole question in AP art was exploring the human form,” Weisensel said. “I was using clay, but it wasn’t as interesting.”

Then she saw chicken wire sculpture online.

The map covering the wire frame was the last part. She said using a map to cover the sculpture was a last minute change. Initially, the face was covered with magazine clippings of other portraits, but it made the face look to busy and bright.

“I let it set aside for a month and work on other projects,” she said. Her art teacher Michael Wiechmann encouraged her to finish the sculpture. He was the one to suggest using maps to cover the frame instead of the collage of faces.

Weisensel said the map approached worked better, keeping the piece more minimalist. She also spray painted the wires and interior white to match the maps.

The last step was to attach little people to the exposed wires. It gives the impression of tiny people bursting out of a head. She said the idea is people are able to peak inside the brain of the sculpture.

“I like artwork that makes people think,” Weisensel said. “I want people to put their own perspective into it.”

Weisensel said next year she will attend the University of Minnesota and study Food Science, but said she will continue making art in some form.

“As long as I can be creative, I’ll stay with it” she said.