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- Teaneck High School senior Sylvana Dipre is the artist behind the ‘Frog Compass.’
TEANECK — When the Eco-Art Committee of the Teaneck Creek Conservancy went looking for someone to design a replacement for a disintegrating sculpture in the 47-acre nature preserve, it turned to high school visual arts teacher Jennifer Sinclair.
The resulting “Frog Compass” sculpture, designed by Sylvana Dipre, a Teaneck High School senior student of Sinclair’s, will be formally unveiled during ribbon-cutting ceremonies in the preserve on Wednesday, June 4, at 3 p.m.
“The committee actually came and visited our class last April and explained what they wanted,” Sinclair said. “It was originally an armillary sundial, spheres showing different signs of the zodiac highlighted by the sun. It was rusted, and the depleted wood symbols were falling off.”
The class decided “we didn’t want to just remake the same thing,” Sinclair said, and the students researched sundials and compasses and “just brainstormed a completely new, different design.”
By class vote, the winning design was drawn by then-junior Dipre.
“My thought process was trying to incorporate nature into it,” Dipre said. “The flowers are native plants from New Jersey. And the frog at the base, it kind of signified how nature is the foundation for everything.”
The design was sent to the Teaneck Creek Conservancy, which referred Sinclair to metalsmith Julius Minervini of Artistic Metal Works in Hawthorne for the fabrication.
“It was my first time working with the conservancy,” Minervini said. “Originally, the concept was a sundial, but it didn’t really work, so we scrapped that idea and made it work as a compass. We thought it would be a good idea to make the butterflies, plants and flowers native to the area. An employee of mine, Anton Martino, created digital files for the cutouts.”
Dipre said she visited the studio several times to oversee the placement of flowers, butterflies and the north-pointing arrow on the sculpture, which measures 10 feet tall. Classmates Rowan Wouters and Taylor Isidore spent a day with her in late December spray-painting the elements, under Sinclair’s supervision.
“What surprised me the most was probably the size,” Dipre said. “It was very surreal to see something that I had drawn on paper come to life and have a deeper meaning. The most difficult part was tweaking it. When I drew everything on paper, it wasn’t very technical. Some features on the original drawing aren’t on the actual sculpture.”
Dipre, who is headed to Parsons School of Design in New York City after graduation, said the project “really allowed me to see a career in art outside of school.”
“Making art inside of school has its limitations, but creating the sculpture was the first thing I have done that was not for our class. It wasn’t a mandatory project, and it was something I could do whatever I wanted,” Dipre said. “Miss Sinclair helped me with a lot of the technical aspects, and her being there played a major role in making things easier.”
The sculpture was moved to the conservancy late last year, and volunteers from Stonefield Engineering & Design built the surrounding wall and viewing area. Students from Dwight-Englewood School partnered with Sprout Farms & Gardens for a community service project, designing and planting a garden around the compass.
Financial support for the project came in part as a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, administered by the Bergen County Department of Parks, said Eco-Art Committee Co-Chair Sarah Davol.
“Frog Compass is a perfect example of the community-wide involvement of the Teaneck Creek Conservancy’s constituents,” Davol said. “We challenged Teaneck High School students’ creativity and sought out other community resources to help turn Sylvana’s idea into reality.”