4th Annual Student Exhibit

4th Annual Student Exhibit, a set on Flickr.

Whew! TraillWorks just held it's 4th Annual Student Exhibition opening reception this past Saturday. It was a great success! Thank you to all of the talented students who participated and the support of all of their parents, family and friends. While I have several adult students, the exhibit happens to fall during Youth Art Month, a national annual observance each March to emphasize the value of K-12 art education for all children and to encourage support for quality school art programs.

The gallery and studios were buzzing with artists and their guests. Even the NJ Herald sent a photographer - we got an excellent photo spread in this Monday's paper.

During the reception, students had an opportunity to work with their friends and family in drawing a collective 5- Line Portrait. This was inspired by my reading of Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind in which he mention's a great activity to utilize the right brain. He learned this technique from a Betty Edward's workshop, the author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It was amazing to see each person's portrayal of themselves, using only 5 lines and how everyone, regardless of talent was able to accomplish it. Each rendering looked like the artist!

Participating students also had to submit artistically-presented snacks for the reception. The submissions were outstanding this year and twice we had to break a tie for the winners. I'm pleased to announce, 1st place went to Miles Shaw for his tree cake, depicting a watercolor he created; 2nd place went to Will Somma for his Picasso-inspired self-portrait cake; 3rd place went to Carin Cali for her flowers in the grass fruit tray; and a prize was awarded to Amanda Canova for voting in the contest.

Congratulations to all of the winners of the food contest and more importantly, to all of the students who have developed their work with me over the past year. My students should all get a pat on the back for the hard work they have shown. I'd also like to commend, Alyse DiBlasio, Assistant Curator, Marketer and Developer, for her successful curatiing of the exhibit, and Kassandra Talmadge, Graphic Designer and Sales Associate, for her help in developing all of the promotional materials.

If you have not had a chance to stop in the exhibit, it runs through April 1st. Please come and support the many student artists at TraillWorks. Read more about the exhibit in our press release here.

3rd Annual TraillWorks Student Art Show Opens

There is a wonderful feeling when you walk into your own exhibition. You see the work as a true extension of yourself. Win or lose, your interests have led you to an accumulation of your personal expression, signed lower right, mounted to best advantage.(Robert Genn)

Works by Monica Solano, Alyse Delaney, and Laurel O'Rourke

Saturday night marked the opening of the 3rd Annual TraillWorks Student Exhibition, which happens to correlate with Youth Art Month. As talks of cuts to art programs are discussed around the country, over 15 student artists exhibited their works that they created over the past year. I'm so proud of their hard work, creativity and ingenuity, as well as the large number of students that wanted to exhibit. Creating artwork is certainly our focus of lessons at TraillWorks, but I deeply believe in showing student work and allowing students to experience in the process of a piece from creation to completion with it hanging on a wall or on display. We artists can spend hours toiling away at our craft, but if it artwork remains hidden, in my opinion, it doesn't much exist.

Students looking at the artwork

Some of my Saturday students

Student, Katelyn O'Connor, viewing the artwork

Students also need to see work of other students. My lessons are very intimate, with six students in the largest class. It's important to see what other ideas and techniques are being worked on, enabling their vision to widen. My students brought friends and family with them to the gallery to show of their accomplishments. For about three hours, students and their guests streamed in and out, looking at the work of other students, as well as their own. The students had an opportunity to meet and talk to the other students and learn more about each others' artworks. As part of the exhibit, students were asked to write a short reflective statement which I hung next to each piece. 

Heart-shaped Sugar Cookies by Maddie Chymiy - Voted Most Artistic

Food is always an important aspect of a reception and in this one I made it the secondary focus of the show. I invited attending students to enter a food item, sweet or savory, to be judged by the guests for its creativity and artistic presentation. This was a nice way of creating a participatory environment, but also avoided giving awards out for the artwork. We had over ten entries - see all of them on the TraillWorks Facebook Page. Three participants won for the most artistic, the top entry being one of my youngest students, Maddie Chymiy, for her painted heart cookies. Phillip Nezamis won in second place for his Rice Krispy castle, and Hannah Manning, Nikki Manning, and Jessica Sparling tied for third place for their individual entries. A fourth award was given to a guest who didn't personally enter, but voted. Dr. Kevin Shaw was randomly selected as the winner. All four winners were offered a choice of prizes ranging from a lesson credit at TraillWorks, gift certificates to local merchants, restaurants, a Dick Blick gift certificate, and an Art Gallery Cookie package from A Cake Dream. 

My husband, Lee, our son, Joel, Corrie Guddemi, and William Somma drawing during the reception

Joel and Me as he was leaving.

Families of the students

Being a family affair, my husband, Lee, and our son, Joel came by for awhile. Many of my students and their families have been around since I was pregnant and have watched Joel grow from a newborn, to an infant, and now a funny little toddler. My associate, Corrie Guddemi, my student, Will Somma, and my husband, Lee, all sat down with Joel to get a little creative. He loves coming to Mommy's studio, and he didn't want to leave. I'm ever so grateful for the supportive and loving clients I have that have embraced Joel since his very beginning. 

Many congratulations to all of the talented and eager students that I have had the joy of teaching, many for over five years now in Sussex County. I hope that TraillWorks will continue to be your choice for artistic growth, now into the future.
Visit our Facebook Page to view a full photo album of the art show.

TraillWorks Student Saturday

Harry the duck interpreted by four new students, a money tree leaf studied, a sea turtle rendered in color, and abstract tile designs are some of the many works created by just a few of TraillWorks' students in the fall of 2010. Read on to learn about the works, their intent and process.

Harry in the Attic, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Katelyn, Age 10

Harry Inside / Outside, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Cailey, Age 10

In Katelyn's Harry, check out all of the textures, the depth of the rooms, and the sense of foreground emphasized by the roof of the dollhouse. Way to go Katelyn on an inventive composition, theme, and creative use of texture and color.
Cailey's Harry also explores interiors and exteriors, a little more abstractly. In her piece Harry is looking beyond a window from the inside out, looking into an artist's studio. Check out her incredible use of markered contour lines, unity of colors and very interesting structure to her artwork.

Farmland, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Maddie, Age 6

McDonald's Harry, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Ava, Age 6

Can you find the ducks in Maddie's and Ava's works above? They're in there. But what emerged in both are two very different visions. Maddie turned her work into a rolling farm filled with vivid blues, purples, and pinks, while Ava was influenced by McDonald's, repeating large m's and other architectural forms, using an earthier palette of pinks, browns, and blacks, with a hint of pink.

Leaf Series, 8" x 24", Mixed Media, ©2010 Rachel, Age 7

Leaf Series, 24" x 8", Colored and Pastel Pencils, ©2010 Noa, Age 9

The next two pieces are two examples of serial leaf drawings many of my students did in the fall. All used leaves from the studio's money tree for reference, leaving my tree quite plucked and pruned in an odd shape! But, all for a good purpose. Students had the option of using a variety of colored surfaces, colored pencils, pastels, and other drawing materials. The emphasis of the piece was on drawing the leaf from observation and developing a transition of some sort. The finished works were all mounted on foam core and then either left white, as in Noa's case, or collaged, painted, or drew into the background to unify the three pieces and bind them together with sewn elements, simple bookmaking techniques, as in Rachel's.

Sea Turtles, 16" x 12", Colored Pencil on Watercolor, ©2010 Will, Age 10

Will's artwork was influenced by a book he brought into class on sea turtles. He's a very creative kid who now has an ongoing sketchbook of drawings and ideas, so often his projects are developed by his interests. This piece is composed of actually several parts, one not seen. I introduced Will to the art of salt and watercolor to create a background tone which would mimic the sea. He then composed the picture, drawing the main sea turtle from reference photo, and then inventing the other fish! This was completed with colored pencils. The partner piece not shown is a clay sculpture of a sea turtle. 

Crayon Reflection, 20" x 16", Acrylic on Canvas, ©2010 Phoebe Nezamis, Age 15

Finally, the painting above was recently finished by Phoebe, a freshman in high school. Phoebe's been taking lessons with her mom and brother since last summer and is also a very creative thinker. The project intent was to develop a still life painting in acrylic, after learning to mix colors in gouache and draw an object from observation in charcoal. After several, maybe ten or more, thumbnail sketches Phoebe came up with this clever composition which utilized a mirror! Super challenging! She did an excellent job at replicating the colors of the crayons and then coming up with an engaging compositional structure. Her idea was somewhat influenced by Wayne Thiebaud, and probably a little of Richard Diebenkorn. The yellow background was my suggestion, as one of several options. What a stunning piece! 

My students currently are working on some exciting pieces and getting ready for our TraillWorks Student Show set for March, coinciding with Youth Art Month. So look for my Student Saturday post next month with info about the exhibit and more new student work.