Date: Fri 17-Jan-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-Sandy-Hook-NHS-art

Full Text:

What Do You See? Sandy Hook Youngsters Become Art Critics

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

You can't beat 10-year-olds for saying what they think.

At the same time, you have to give the Newtown High School art students in

Carol Washburn's Advanced Placement (AP) Art Portfolio class credit for

courage - because they willingly submitted to a free-wheeling critique session

of their artwork by a group of curious but appreciative fifth graders.

It all happened in one quick hour, Monday, January 13, when the seven seniors,

who had been invited by Sandy Hook art teacher Leslie Gunn to display their

artwork in the school's front hall, met their critics for the first time.

Mrs Washburn knew it would be a learning experience for both artists and

viewers.

"One of the criteria for the AP class is that students should prepare and

present an exhibition of their work somewhere in the community. This was a

great opportunity for them to do that," said Mrs Washburn, while she waited

for the fifth graders to seat themselves comfortably on the floor in front of

the seniors.

She explained further that her class was geared for advanced art students who

were "self-directed." In preparing their portfolios for job applications or

college entrance, they would need to select recent works from a range of

media, then make slides of the works for initial presentations in advance of

their interviews.

They would also need to develop a "critical eye" in presenting their work, she

said, and the critique session with the Sandy Hook youngsters was a good place

to start.

"How come these things look sort of like, strange? Some of them, they're nice,

but I don't even understand what they are!"

Those words, spoken by fifth grader Ashley Gabor, served to break the ice, and

typified the young children's reactions to some of the seniors' art.

Having spent a week looking at the works, they wanted to know what motivated

the seniors' creativity. This was their chance to learn first hand how the

various watercolors, acrylics, chalk drawings, clay pots and ceramic

sculptures had been conceived and carried out.

Delighted with the frank questions, the seniors, Cherish Valente, Adam Winner,

Danielle Andrews, Jill Swiatowicz and Elizabeth Terrance tried to respond with

equal honesty.

Marshall Svendsen and Lauren McEvoy, whose work was also on display, were not

present for the session. Marshall was absent and Lauren was gone for the day,

showing her portfolio during an interview at Syracuse University.

"What are you doing in that picture?" one youngster asked Adam Winner, who had

painted a large picture of a young man with wild-looking hair sitting alone on

a hill side, staring off into space.

"First of all, that's not me. But the boy in the picture is watching a cow,"

Adam replied simply, pointing to a small black and white image on the far hill

side.

Like many artists, he wasn't going to embellish further, preferring to let the

viewers do their own imagining.

"What's that?" another child wanted to know, pointing to a three-dimensional

assemblage created by Jill Swiatowicz.

First, Jill explained that an "assemblage" was created from "found objects"

that could be combined in whimsical ways according to the artist's design.

Her assemblage included several parts of picture frames painted and glued

together at different angles around painted scenes of clouds and sky, with a

ceramic cactus and a duck added.

"It's about change. The cactus is changing into the duck," Jill said with a

smile, realizing that this transformation might not be readily obvious to

anyone but the artist.

Jill, who is applying to Marist and Roger Williams College, hopes to become an

author and illustrator of children's books.

"Where do you get the inspiration?"

"You keep sketchbooks," said senior Cherish Valente, who works in a wide range

of media from oil and acrylic to clay sculptures and fabric designs.

Her ceramic tree house was one piece which particularly captured the

children's interest. They wanted to know what gave her the idea, and several

of them began sketching it on pads they'd brought along.

"Sometimes we might not paint exactly what we see, but more what we want to

see," explained Elizabeth Terrance, who wants to major in graphic design.

Elizabeth's painting of a foot treading upon decorative shapes intrigued the

children.

"Mrs Washburn is obsessed with negative space," she joked, "so I had to get

creative with this background."

Her large painting of a seemingly old and tired woman, drawn with wobbly dark

lines and shaded blue, proved another catalyst of curiosity.

"We were getting too uptight," with our work, Elizabeth said, adding Mrs

Washburn wanted them to back off and finish their drawings with long sticks

dipped in ink, to help them relax about the end result.

"It taught us not to be too cocky!" she said.

"This is my tenth try. I threw out two. My once-beautiful woman turned out to

be old but more interesting," Elizabeth explained.

The Sandy Hook children weren't too young to realize that artists often

project their feelings into their work, and they wanted to talk about that.

"Why does the person in that birthday picture look so sad? Birthdays are

supposed to be happy, but this one seems scary," Ashley said.

Danielle Andrews stood beside her painting of a huge, gray face blowing out

birthday candles.

"You're right, it does seem like the face is floating. The light from the

candles shining upward makes different shadows in shades of gray. I don't know

exactly why I did that," Danielle said.

When the time was up, the Sandy Hook art critics gathered their pencils and

notebooks and rose with regret to go back to their classroom. Before they

left, a few asked the seniors for autographs.

"Can you believe that? Aren't they great?" said one Newtown senior, who added

that had never happened to her before.

Obviously, the critique session had a success.