The high school’s art department held a campus show from Nov. 3 to Nov. 10 that was curated by students. The gallery displayed drawings, paintings, and sculptures that were created by students in all levels of art classes. TRL’s Ashlan Morgan interviewed the creators of four pieces displayed in the show.
Rosemary Archer – Botanical Collection
Archer’s collection portrays three different pieces. Each piece has a type of chip bag filled with flowers which are blooming out. The first piece on the left is a Lays barbecue chip bag created using watercolor paints on a white paper substrate. The second piece in the middle is a Funyuns bag created digitally on an iPad. The third piece on the right is a Cheetos bag created using colored pencil on a black paper substrate. It took Archer two weeks to finish her collection. The project’s prompt was “a collection of organic materials”. Archer used “the flowers in [her] piece to represent organic and incorporated the chip bags to contrast the flowers.” The meaning behind the organic contrasts is “to show how trash can be brought to life when organic materials are added to them.” Her collection “pushed [her] to focus on the details and [to learn] how to apply those with different media.”
Becca Wang – Human Self-Rescue Guide
Wang’s collection includes three pieces. Two of which are created using Chinese watercolor and micron on hot-press watercolor paper. The third is a small book including art pieces made using the same forms of media as the mounted pieces. It took Wang a week and a half to complete her pieces. The project’s prompt was a “How-To” piece. Wang combined this prompt and a personal story to make it “both narrative and instructional”. The meaning behind the story portrayed in the collection was “guiding you through the process of being reborn and self saving from depression.” It also follows “being bullied and losing hope for life, and when you go to heaven, you gain love from God” and “[coming] back to earth and telling people your story.” The text within the pieces is written in ancient classical Chinese language and has a purpose to be read in both instructional and narrative ways.
Connor O’Donnell – Fire Igniter
O’Donnell’s sculpture is a wooden fire extinguisher with a light flickering in the side. The extinguisher is made of plywood which O’Donnell cut into rings and stacked on top of each other. He used a cutting knife to cut cracks in the wood, red stain for the color effect and a grill in order to burn the wood. It took O’Donnell two weeks to complete the sculpture. The concept of the piece was to create “a bit of irony” because “fire extinguishers aren’t supposed to be on fire, they’re supposed to put out fires.” The light and tissue paper within the extinguisher are made to look like “it is still burning.” O’Donnell’s main goal was to capture the irony of the wood and fire relationship.
Dillon Hughes – Fortune
Hughes’ collage piece is made to interpret the word fortune. The collage is made from a woodblock covered with Prismacolor, paper cut outs and gesso paint. The woodblock was first covered in a bright blue gesso layer, then the cut out collage was applied and it was finished off with a vibrant Prismacolor layer. It took Hughes two weeks to complete the collage. The project’s idea was for students to choose a word that resonated with them and create a collage to represent it. Hughes chose the word fortune for his collage because “the idea of knowing your fortune and future, obsessing over the idea of knowledge you’re not supposed to know is a cool idea.” Fortune is commonly “seen from a fortune teller or fortune cookies.” Hughes wanted to “showcase how often we glorify and uphold the future” and to have “stronger attention on the present.”
