His face is green. His nose looks like a blue prong protruding between the eyes. Ah, those eyes. Two orange cobwebs.

His creator, Dwayne Gue, calls him Sishkabob. Dwayne’s teacher calls Sishkabob a lesson in discovering the limitless imagination.

Sishkabob is one of about 30 masks created by the sixth and seventh grade students of Lee Anne Collins, art teacher at Chesapeake Middle School. The assignment was to create a mask, but it was a project that expanded the knowledge and skills of all involved.

The older class had to create a tribal face covering out of plaster, first doing research that offered a multicultural dimension to the assignment.

The sixth graders simply had to create a mask by using papier-mache as their medium. But it was their first opportunity of working in three-dimensions.

First, they sketched out on paper whatever their creativity dictated as far as a face. Then, they brought in old newspapers, cardboard, glue and masking tape to create the materials they molded into the mask.

“I just made mine up,” Ben Mylar explained. However, Daniel Little took as his inspiration one of his favorite wrestlers, Ray Mysterio.

“I like the design on his mask,” Daniel said.

The painting was the tricky part for Roni Nixon.

“It was the first time I did something like that,” she said. “It was very interesting.”

Collins said she was pleased with the results of her students, who did all the work by themselves.

“It took a lot of patience,” she said. “They are more confident. They took a flat 2-D and made it 3-D. At this age, they start second-guessing everything they do. I don’t want them to say, ‘I can’t.’ “

A fine sentiment but perhaps Mickey Sanchez put it better:

“It was awesome.”