Gallery 2005: An All-Encompassing Art Show At Hawley

By Susan Coney

The terrific, young artists at Hawley School once again welcomed the entire school community to share in their creative accomplishments. Gallery 2005 took place on May 4 and the artwork will remain on view for several weeks. As families attended the show many contributed generous donations to the Food Pantry, organized by third grade teacher Lea Attanasio.

In addition to the wonderful artwork on display, parents had the opportunity to stop by the music room to hear and watch music teacher Diana Gilewski’s fantastic recorder students and dancers.

First graders had many adorable works of art on display. Paper weaving done by the children showed gorgeous weavings that were made with paper that was first hand painted and textured by the students.

Funny Faces was an art project where the children looked at many different styles of portraits done by famous artists, then the students set out to create their own, keeping the style of Pablo Picasso in mind. Other works by the first graders dealt with shapes, mixing colors, and delving into gooey paper mache to create little houses.

Second graders displayed uniquely designed gingerbread houses that contained a variety of architectural elements. The students used paint, oil pastels, and lots of imagination to create their whimsical homes in Gingerbread Land. They also created clay minimasks inspired by masks made by many cultures throughout the world. These minimasks were made using clay slabs and that were glazed and fired.

Another very creative and eye-catching project entered in the show by second graders was colorful Jack-in-the-Box pictures. The students used a wide array of bright colors plus black and white to paint over their drawing. The students then created their own stencils to further ad texture to the Jack-in-the-Box, making them pop out to the viewer.

Third graders learned a great deal about symmetry in art and math class. Using symmetrical qualities of the face the students created split faces showing knowledge of symmetry, positive and negative space, and creativity.

After studying the Huichol Indians of Mexico who are famous for their intricately designed yarn paintings, the third grade students set out to make their own by first planning a kaleidoscopic design. Art teacher Vicki Sheskin said, “It was a lot harder than it looked and we certainly came away with an appreciation of the skills of the Huichol. We are very proud of ours too.”

Fourth graders contributed a great deal of high quality work to the Gallery Show with their bean mosaics; the students were able to conjure up images inspired by other cultures. Using a variety of dried beans, legumes, rice, and pasta, the children constructed faces with a wide range of expressions. The process was tedious and the students had to persevere to apply the colored bits in a mosaic style, in spite of the curling cardboard, Ms Sheskin stated.

After a lesson on gesture drawing, fourth graders were asked to create a clay person, supporting the figure with a clay vessel of their choice. The pieces were then fired and glazed.

Ms Sheskin was very enthusiastic about the beautiful artwork her students produced. She was grateful to chairperson Stacey Olszewski and the many art show volunteers for the countless time and energy they contributed to the preparation of the Art Show Gallery 2005.

Adults from Newtown Senior Center were treated to a tour given later in the week by fourth graders Leah Pinckney, Suzie Gissen, KC Condon, and Eric Fiore, who eagerly spent time explaining the different works of art on display. During the tour the students shared their own artwork and enjoyed showing the seniors their art room. Parent volunteer Lisa Gissen and PTA President Lori Liniger were on hand to provide the seniors and their tour guides with refreshments.