Students get in touch with art
Art was everywhere at Western Avenue Elementary School's 14th annual "Artists in Our Courtyard" event Wednesday.
Everywhere except the courtyard. Years ago, organizers decided it was better to have the event inside the school, but kept the original name.
About 25 artists -- some adults, some Geneva High School students -- demonstrated their talents and displayed their works in the art classroom, library and hallways of the west-side Geneva school. Students toured the displays during their art class period.
Students got to see, touch and hear fine arts, as potters, painters, jewelry-makers and a guitarist were among those participating.
"They can touch this one. Feel around the eyes and nose," Allison Willman, painter, told a group of kindergartners. They were examining her acrylic painting of a wolf. The eyes felt bumpy, because she used a gel paint for them.
"I remember in grade school I came to this because I went to this school. It's weird," said Allison, a senior at Geneva High School.
Older students carried around questionnaires. One of the questions was whether the artist's art is decorative or functional.
"It's decorative AND functional," Julie Landrum said of her jewelry, pointing out what she was wearing.
Wood carver Dick MacFeely laughed at the question, as it was asked while he was carving a face on the back rest of a wooden chair. "I'm sitting on this piece," he pointed out.
"I like Lucy's grampa's pictures on wood," proclaimed Alex Van Berkun, a second-grader, at the wood-carving station. Lucy Smith is MacFeely's granddaughter, and she attends Western Avenue.
Origami artist Peggy Condon helped students make little cups out of squares of paper. She suggested they use them to carry snacks. "Sometimes when I go to the theater I do this to get my popcorn, because my husband likes to hog all the popcorn," she told them.
Senior Cody McBain intrigued kids as he spun a pottery wheel. "You guys want to touch it? See how it feels," he said, shaping something that could become a bowl, jar or base out of porcelain clay.
"I liked the pottery," said Rebecca Joos, a second-grader. She also shyly but proudly pointed out that in a recent art class unit on Impressionism, she made a painting like one of Claude Monet's paintings of bridges.
"It brings the high school community and the adult community all together at the elementary community. It's a wonderful fine arts enrichment experience for the children," said Georgia Simone, the chairwoman of this year's event.
"With the way the arts are getting chipped away, it's wonderful to have this."