with Art students
On the afternoon of Friday, July 31st, the Omololu International School, in The Quarter, observed its annual Visual Arts Exhibition. A variety of arts and crafts were displayed to showcase the talents and artistic abilities of the gifted students. Skillful students tirelessly participated during the entire month of July to create attractive items of impressive art.
Mrs. Colette Jones-Chin is the Visual Arts teacher at the school, and she spoke with The Anguillian during the event: “We call this exhibition ‘Young @Art’, and it is organised by STAGES Anguilla, of which I am the Director, in collaboration with the Omolomlu International School. We started preparing for this annual exhibition in early July, and we culminate today, the last day of July, with this wonderful display — the work of fifteen students from age 7 to 16.”
When asked to describe the work that the students generated over the month, Mrs. Jones-Chin explained: “The students did work in craft as well as visual arts. I taught them drawing, water color painting, abstract painting, acrylic painting, decorative lettering, marbling, batique, tie-die, button art, embroidery, and sculpture. The programme continues in August for another month, and we intend to have another exhibition at the end of August.”
Ten-year-old Elianna Guzman is one excellent art student who was assigned by Mrs. Jones-Chin as our guide for the displays. She was quite versed in explaining the kind of work that was involved in the various craft creations. She first explained the intricacies of embroidery:
“This is a chain stitch embroidery piece”, she said. “The day when we did these was the same day that we were doing face paintings. Many of us did not want to do face paintings, so we decided on embroidery sewing instead. We sewed our names in embroidery, and some of us sowed on flowers and animals.”
Maddux Owen–Vasilis
Pointing and moving over to another section in the room, she noted: “Now, over here is water colour painting. Our teacher, Mrs. Chin, printed out ideas for us to paint, and I did this one on top which shows the beach. Most of us did flowers, though. It was my idea to create any flower. It was first drawn in any shape that I desired, and inside the shape I coloured it with any of the colours I chose. Outside the shape, the colours are just black and white.”
Moving over to another segment, she pointed out: “Over here are little houses that we made from wood. Inside these houses, we are going to install candles to give light so that they can look like lamps. Other children used toilet paper rolls, and they glued popsicle sticks in certain patterns to design them in any form they chose.”
Next, Elianna identified the batique art. She explained: “Here is the batique where we have a special kind of cloth. On it you can draw anything you want. Then you outline the drawing with wax so that the outline stays white and waxy. Then you paint on the drawing before covering the whole thing in wax. After this, the waxed cloth is crumbled, resulting in a certain texture. Finally, you add another colour so that it can look like this. You can also turn it into lamp shades as well, so that as the light shines through, it reveals the beautiful colours.”
Then, Elianna showed off the tree art: “Here is our creation of trees,” she said. “These are made from wire. It was difficult for us to shape the stiff wire, with our hands, so we had to use a pair of pliers to form the frame of the tree. Most of us got little bruises, but we got through with it. After we firmly shaped the hard wire, we then put on the softer black wire all around. After that, we placed on the green covering. So here you have cacti trees and other tree art.”
Lastly, Elianna showed us some bottle art. She explained: “The children chose any bottle they wanted to design. They glued paper all around it and then they painted it with their own design. Next, they got different colours of straws and wrapped them around the bottom to form a coaster. Then, finally, they made designs on the bottles with gems and beads.”
She also showed the tie-die art, and letter painting, that was done by the older children. Overall, Elianna proved to be a great and efficient young guide, who thoroughly explained the creativity that went into the work of “Young @Art. She is to be commended for her skills at art as well as for her proficiency in explaining the art processes.
We also met with Ms. Mya Lake who is another brilliant Visual Arts student. When we caught up with her, she was showing off her own displays of water colour, as she sported with her father, the renowned Mr. Remington “Bummy” Lake, who is of course extremely pleased and proud of her coveted talents.
Mrs. Jones-Chin noted that apart from working toward the exhibits each year, she also select students to sit the CXC Visual Arts examinations. She said that the youngest student who she has selected was the above-mentioned 14-year-old Mya Lake. She praised Ms. Lake for her dedication to art by saying: “Mya Lake is a very passionate student who will soon be entering 3rd Form at the Omololu International School. She has recently written the CSEC Visual Arts exams in 2nd Form, and currently she is working in abstract expressionism, surrealism, cubism and abstract doddling.”
According to Ms. Jones Chin, other outstanding students in the “young @art” programme are: 14-year-old Maddux Owen Vasilis, 14-year-old Sage Connor, 12-year-old Elianna Guzman, 13-year-old Kieron Edwards, 10-year-old Jane Kim, 10-year-old Chaundra Patterson, as well as Joseph Maniserephen and Mya Lake.
The second Visual Arts Exhibition, for Season 2, will be staged at the Omololu International School on Friday, August 28th.
- Staff Reporter, James R. Harrigan
