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Fourteen Holy Cross high school students had the opportunity to be professional artists for a month with an open-to-the-public art exhibit at the old Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street. The exhibit continues through April 30.
Students in Art III, IV and advanced placement displayed 67 works in a variety of mediums that they have created since January.
Visual arts instructor Jason DuMouchel said students were introduced to and encouraged to try many art forms for the exhibit. What resulted were a variety of entries, including acrylics on canvas by Wesley Schmidt, and a large acrylic on computerized print on wood panel called “Combustion” by Craig McGehee.
“I decided to combine the two ways that I see art in one format,” McGehee said. “All of the applied photographs are of the same male, Tyler Okonma. I used a limited color palette, applied the paint with an assortment of tools, all of which helped create a variety of strokes.”
A ‘soothing’ look
Nicholas Bologna used plaster and acrylic on canvas for his work “Soothe.” More than 20 pieces done in prismacolor (colored pencil) on paper were contributed by Elliot Dejoie.
Student Raymond Curry enjoys simple forms of art and submitted human busts representing urban pop culture with varied color backgrounds using prismacolor on paper.
Nicholas Aperwhite had 10 works featuring the Blessed Mother (one above) using charcoal, pastel and prismacolor on paper and on pastel paper. David Cochran contributed mixed media on canvas. Ryan Bourgeois contributed several ceramic mixed media depicting tombs and a plaster chairsplitter, while nearby were ceramics in “Living Forms 1-VIII” by Robbie Slicho. Colton Cutrer’s “Pink Hurricane” utilized a painting on canvas of the eye of a hurricane with tree limbs, pink fabric hanging on the limbs and life preserver and other things to create a moving mixed media.
One of the larger 3-D pieces in the exhibit is “This Right Here is Grandma’s Chair” by Heath Sykes. He paid homage to his grandmother by painting one of her dining room chairs and had it bursting out of a multi-wallpaper-lined wall.
“He remembered his grandmother’s old house having various kinds of wallpaper throughout the house,” DuMouchel said. “The colors of paint used signify his and her favorite colors.”
Another large display was by student Frank Jurisich, whose family members are oyster fishermen. He had two panels with several canvases depicting various elements of Louisiana seafood such as oysters, fishermen, shrimp boots, oyster shells and other objects.
Show took patience
“This show is three years in the making, as I spent that time exposing them to as many formats as I could so that they would eventually find a method that they enjoy and will inspire them to do their best work,” visual arts teacher Warren Irwin said. “Many of the mediums were pretty traditional, but many were not, and I think that’s the best aspect of the show. Everyone’s work truly reflects their different temperaments.”
Irwin and DuMouchel plan to make this an annual event for upper-level students. Last year, the student works were displayed at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
“It is very important that they understand what it means to have their work exhibited for others to see,” Irwin said. “In this case it wasn’t just about them making art. It was the whole process of developing an idea, working it to exhaustion, picking which works to display, preparing for the display, and then the physical process of installing the art. Once they understand how much is involved, it can impact them either positively or negatively. Only time will tell. Some people get excited at the prospect of a huge production; others, not so much.”
“I try to impress upon the students what a gift it is to have the opportunity to show their work publicly without adding any unnecessary pressure to take the fun out of making the art,” DuMouchel said.
Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarion herald.org.
Tags: art show, Holy Cross School, mixed media, Old Ursuline Convent, Uncategorized