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Visualize Arts at St. Margarets

"Exposure to art is a vital part of a student's educational experience at St. Margaret's. It's great seeing students sharing their work with the community," Arts Department Chair Barbara Nelson says. ?In addition to celebrating student accomplishments, art exhibitions provide valuable learning opportunities, both communal and personal. They may inspire and engage people to action, promote discussion and reinforce learning across all disciplines."

Eighth grade art students displayed a culmination of their first semester work at the Eighth Grade 3-D Art Exhibit held in the Gateway Building in February. Some of the artwork included contour portraits, mixed media mobiles, tile pieces, and clay masks and sculptures that were created in Barbara Nelson and Josh Friedman's art classes. "Putting on display not just one piece each, but a number of pieces gave students more of an awareness of how much they accomplished over the course of the semester. It helped them see their growth," Friedman says.

The assignments begin with a question, says Friedman. For example, the question "How can art convey an emotion?" was the starting point for three clay assignments. Friedman explains, "We explored surface design and texture by creating ceramic tiles that thematically addressed emotions. The intrinsic nature of the medium allowed students the freedom to directly draw with their fingers on the clay surface and record information in an immediate, highly individualized way. The project required students to use art elements to communicate four distinct emotions. In essence they were formulating their own 'visual vocabulary.' We continued exploring emotions as we examined facial expressions and made two masks. Students used paint, collage, and pattern to enhance their exploration."

This year for the first time Middle School students have been able to select a one semester elective in art. The benefits of studying and creating art are myriad. Friedman says that by creating artistic pieces, students develop their critical eye and analytical thinking skills, gain experience and appreciate different ways of communicating ideas three-dimensionally, begin to grasp formal concepts important to the art-making process, and learn about historically significant artists. Students viewed wire sculptures by Alexander Calder when they were constructing mobiles and were inspired by Louise Nevelson's monochromatic assemblage sculptures when creating their sculptures. Friedman says, "Middle school students have a tremendous sense of wonderment as well as curiosity.

Eighth grade student Eden Frost says, "It was a lot of fun to create such a variety of art pieces. We learned a lot about each project, topic, and artist before constructing our own versions of the pieces that we saw. We were given a lot of creative freedom and that really helped and allowed us to express ourselves."

In St. Margaret's Upper School, students in Studio Art learn composition, drawing skills, and various modes of approaching art making. Teacher Natasha Shoro brings to her classes her professional experience as a designer and fine artist. Department Chair Barbara Nelson says that Studio Art 1 is a great foundation course for students who wish to pursue design, drawing, or painting.

Other artistic courses for Upper School students include photography classes. Photography teacher Nadyne McClurg's classes are an extremely popular elective in the Upper School. "She wants her students to be able to communicate through their images." Nelson says. Photography students concentrate on composition, technical skill, and concept development. A number of Advanced Placement photography students are submitting portfolios to the College Board in Two-Dimensional Design.

This year, St. Margaret's combined the Fifth Annual Coffee House Cabaret with the K-12 Student Art Show. While the Coffee House Cabaret showcased St. Margaret's finest vocal, instrumental, and dramatic talent in Siller's Hall, the visual artwork of students was on display in the Gateway Building's foyer.

Just as students are selected for the Cabaret by audition, the works of art are selected for a variety of reasons. Art teachers strive to show the best quality and the breadth of the program with a variety of kinds of work and solutions. "We had over 150 students from each of the divisions who had artwork displayed," says Barbara Nelson. "By having an exhibit of artwork by students in different grade levels, we clearly see sequential progress."

Throughout the spring, St. Margaret's art students have displayed their art off campus as well. Art teachers Josh Friedman and Barbara Nelson encouraged students to submit work for Color it Orange, an annual juried youth art exhibition of Orange County public and private school students. Many St. Margaret's students in Kindergarten through grade 12 had work selected for Color it Orange which displays 600 pieces out of the approximately 4,500 that are submitted. "We had 49 pieces selected and 17 awards!" The reception and awards were at the Laguna College of Art and Design in March, and the exhibit remained open to view for another week.

St. Margaret's students will have art on display at an Irvine gallery in May. Ten Upper School students in Josh Friedman's Clay Hand Building course will make their debut in "Little Light", an exhibition at 98ten Fine Art Gallery. The students' work will be featured with Friedman's drawings and sculptures as well as paintings by Los Angeles artists, Richard Bruland and Kyoungha Yoo. Friedman says, "This is a great opportunity for St Margaret's students to gain recognition for their achievements and exhibit work in a new gallery along side of professional contemporary artists active in southern California.

For more information about the show and directions to the gallery, Click Here

Contact:
Anne Mack
949.661.0108 x252
949.400.2055 (mobile)
anne.mack@smes.org