2005 Year in Review

CAPA Sponsors Local Student Art Show

Brad Cowsert lifts his daughter, Alena, to identify her fire-breathing dragon.

There was art everywhere!

Junior high students displayed "blind contour drawing."

Don Miller and Marc Adami admired the fifth-grade masks.

High school students displayed figure drawings and papier mache fish.

John Benson holds a blue "constructivist sculpture."

Thomas, a kindergarten student, built my favorite collage with such attention to detail!

Trevor indicates his poinsettia and dove crayon-resist painting, but said his collage with cut paper letters "Was pretty fun!"

Jane Ann Ardapple and second grader Madalyn admire collages made by third graders for Black History Month.

As I entered the Odell Public Library Saturday, April 16, my mouth literally fell open in delight.

Others smiled, too, as they entered an “art museum” created by Morrison students in grades K through 12. The entire vertical space was filled with matted art work!

Alena Cowsert required a lift from her father, Brad, to indicate her fire-breathing dragon displayed near the ceiling. She could not reach it, but her smile let me know she had found it. Alena’s kindergarten classmates made black paper dragons. However, it was her own idea to glue orange fire coming out of her dragon’s mouth. Originality is encouraged from the beginning in Morrison art classes.

From the foyer looking toward the Community Room, I walked into a “salon” that also used every inch of space for display. The ceiling was hung with youngsters’ glittery, paper Christmas ornaments. Softly-shaded pencil drawings of huge tennis shoes came from junior high students. They also displayed intriguing collages that combined magazine art with a photocopy of the student’s own picture imbedded into the design.

The adjoining coatroom showcased examples of “blind contour drawing.” This is one of Mr. Nesti’s favorite topics with his junior high students. In this drawing technique, students reproduce an object without looking at the piece of paper for reference. This forces the artist to focus on his or her subject. Every nuance of the object is seen by the artist and shows up on the paper, but not always in the “right” location.

Some were drawn with pen and ink, others were in color. While the hands or bodies seemed distorted at first glance, they had a quirky originality, a perspective that caused me to really look at the parts. It was very appealing, in a fresh, modern-art style.

There was energy to the Community Room, and I didn’t know where to let my eyes rest. To stimulate the other four senses, this “inner gallery” was adorned with plants, music, trays of cookies, pitchers of lemonade and tea, and the sweetness of a spring breeze.

Like the other areas of the library, the room was covered floor to ceiling in a riot of color. It featured collage, line drawing, graphic design, pottery vessels, woven paper mats, tissue paper “skeletal” leaves, papier mache fish, contour drawing, larger-than-life self portraits, paper and plaster masks, drawings (in crayon, watercolor, pencil, and marker), torn-paper pictures, more glitter, and steel sculpture.

Junior John Benson exhibited four "constructivist sculptures" made of steel and welded at his father’s Morrison Machine Shop. “The welding goes fast; getting the concept is the longest part. I’d say [the largest, seven-piece sculpture] took half an hour. It just takes a while to arrange it. If I want to paint it, it’ll take longer. I make the art for myself.” Benson has built 60 steel projects. He says, "Art will probably become a career for me,” and he might become an art professor.

This is the third year for the “School Children’s Art Display,” stated elementary art teacher Jane Ann Ardapple. “I don’t have an art piece from every student, but we added more pieces this year.” Her husband, Marc Adami, attested to this by remarking that it took four hours on Friday to install her students’ pieces.

Stuart Roddy, high school art instructor, said the junior and senior high school students worked from 3:30 to 8:00 displaying their art works. “The hard part is the matting, labeling, and organizing,” he said. “That’s done on the teachers’ time or with help from volunteers [before the display is built.] There are almost 3 ½ walls, nine feet high, filled with works from the two schools. Every high school art class is represented by its content.”

“At the high school, art is an elective and is represented equally by males and females,” stated Roddy. “It’s becoming an elective they want to take. I have five art classes. In Art 1, students complete a survey course. They study drawing, painting, pottery, graphic design, and art history. It’s a lot of fun when you get people who didn’t know they were going to be interested in art, and then they find out they are. We take them on life-changing field trips to Chicago. Students often continue to make art or appreciate it.”

Will Sedig, sophomore, and Katie Bunt, senior, showed plaster masks to me. Sedig held a mask made of mosaic tiles, covered in hot glue squiggles, and painted cobalt. It was made by senior Mike Britt. Bunt held her own creation of a cityscape behind the face of a masked superhero.

When asked what entries he had designed, Sedig listed three pencil drawings showing wooden mannequins, a glass and spoon, and building blocks; a tissue paper tree; a still-life water color; a clay pitcher. Art class is “a good time,” he stated.

Bunt plans to continue her art education after graduation, but she is unsure where. Besides the mask, she had several objects on display: a pencil drawing of an intricate cube; three ink drawings; one abstract “sumi-e” style painting; and ten abstract computer-graphic water colors. Bunt designed the ten water colors, and then she replicated one in a tempera painting.

It was overwhelmingly obvious that the three District 6 art instructors had spent a great deal of effort on this production. Each display was differentiated by grade or high school art class. A neatly-designed card identified the teaching objective and media used to reach it. Every item was labeled and/or had the artist’s name on it. Care had been taken to balance the pieces and contrast colors.

However, I was most impressed with the variety and richness of products the teachers had inspired throughout the year. Ms. Ardapple echoed Roddy’s pleasure in watching students discover their ability to create.

“I’m not teaching them, I’m pulling it out of them. I want to develop confidence in [the students] to try. I tell them, ‘You never know you like something until you try.’”

I liked everything they tried.

by Stephanie A. Vavra, Guest Columnist
April 16, 2005