Area students create visually stunning masterpieces for Celebration of the Arts
Creativity was everywhere patrons looked during the Holmes County Celebration of the Arts on Tuesday, April 27, at the Perry Reese Center at Hiland High School. The visual arts portion of the event featured artwork from students from schools throughout the county, from kindergarten to the 12th grade. Whether it was chalk, ink, paint, clay or wood, the incredible talent on display showed not only the amazing skills and gifts of the students whose minds created the artwork, but it also was an example of how inventive the art teachers are throughout the county.Celebration of the Arts is a biennial event which brings together visual artists as well as musical talent from both East Holmes and West Holmes schools. The event is coordinated by Gary DeVault, fine arts consultant at Tri-County ESC. DeVault said that the visual arts portion of the event is designed to provide an outlet for deserving young artists to have a forum in which they can display their artistic abilities in front of a huge crowd.
“Wow, this is such a great experience for me, because I get to work with great teachers, and be a part of promoting a lot of very talented, young artists,” said DeVault. “The nice thing about Celebration of the Arts is that it gives people the chance to get a feel for the progression of art as students get older. They get to see how the thought that goes into designing a project evolves and gets more analytical and emotional for the kids as they grow older and learn more about what art is. And most importantly, it helps people see the value that the arts have in public education. I think art plays a key role in developing the mind and helping kids learn how to think about things differently.”
For the show, each of the county’s art teachers were allowed to choose artwork from 10 percent of their entire number of students. That creates a glorious art show of more than 400 pieces of artwork, and the colors, creativity and thought that went into many of the pieces showcased how much talent there is within the county.
Taking part in the show is the easy part for the art teachers. Trying to figure out which pieces to enter is the toughest part, since only 10 percent can make it into the show.
“I’ve got 500 students, so I get to choose 50 pieces to display, and there are so many that I would have loved to include that I couldn’t,” said Kris Flinner, East Holmes elementary art teacher. “It was hugely difficult.”
“Picking what to display is by far the hardest part about this show,” agreed West Holmes Middle School art teacher Amy Rohr. “There are so many kids and so many deserving projects, that it’s a shame we can’t show more, but we have to make the decision, and we try to pick what’s the most deserving.”
While it gives them the ability to show off their student’s skills with different mediums, it also affords them the opportunity to see what other art teachers throughout the county are doing, so they can glean ideas from other sources, and keep their projects fresh from year to year.
The teachers take advantage of this opportunity, and they don’t mind sharing their ideas.
“It does give us the chance to see what other teachers are doing, and it gives us some new ideas that we can take back to our respective classrooms,” said Tami Hicks, art teacher at Hiland High and Middle School. “We enjoy sharing ideas, and even when we do get one from elsewhere, we usually end up putting our own twist on it. I am just amazed at the variety of pieces and styles we have here tonight.”
Throughout the Reese Center gymnasium and foyer, art pieces adorned the walls and tables, and hundreds of people swarmed over the area checking out everything from a giant eyeball and amusing tic-tac-toe games, to a colorful, peace-loving platypus. At many of the displays, proud students took pictures, oftentimes with even prouder parents on the other end of the camera.
The event gave some students a chance to explain their visual art piece, and to enjoy the opportunity to be in the limelight for a moment.
Anthony Carsons, a senior at West Holmes who has delved into creating car detailing designs and tattoos, spoke about his mesmerizing piece titled Heaven and Hell, which portrayed the two sides of good and evil with just the right amount of color mixed into his mostly black and white piece.
“It came from the idea that the modern world was losing sight of goodness and values,” said Carsons of his vision for the piece. “I didn’t want it to be filled with angels and demons, because that is what everyone is going for today. I wanted it to have kind of a Renaissance feel to it, with lots of architecture. I enjoy the chance to be creative and to put what I feel on paper.”
Carsons, who hopes to take his artistic skills to the college level next year, also enjoyed the opportunity to talk to others about his artwork, and the thought process that went into it. “This is kind of neat because it does give a lot of us (students) the chance to get seen by a lot of people for the first time.”
DeVault said that combining both sides of the county is an encouragement to everyone to put aside any division among the two school districts, and he added that it is a joy to see people from all over the county uniting in the name of art.
“This is such a collaborative thing, that is so good for the entire county,” said DeVault of Celebration of the Arts. “This is about the students, and the gifts that they have, but it is also about coming together to enjoy everything that art represents. It’s a fun, relaxing night.”