Lewis School: The halls are alive…with art and family
Elizabeth Ussher Groff / THE BEE
Kindergartener Hayden Leahy, junior art docent, explains to her mother, Sarah, the technique she used to simulate a Japanese woodblock. “We painted a fish (dead) black, placed paper over it, and rubbed it,” she said.
Can a child be an art docent?
Certainly one can at Lewis Elementary School on the “First Thursday” of May each year, when the school hallways become galleries
As your reporter wandered down the upper-grade hall on May 3rd, a poised fifth grade docent, Anastasia Wlasehin-Wiest, described the “Who Am I?” personality self-portraits.
“People drew pictures of themselves, and then Pamela Kennedy, a parent, gave us three pages of words to choose from and cut out,” she explained.
To surround his “Who Am I?” portrait, fifth grader Jonathan McFarland chose words such as: Witty, intense, fast, talented, truthful, fair, brainy, bold, warm, calm, thoughtful and smart.
The word “calm” appeared more than once.
“That’s accurate to a ‘T’”, commented Jonathan’s father, John McFarland, who described Jonathan as very funny but with a serious side, and very committed to whatever he does.
This nineteenth annual “First Thursday” at Lewis Elementary School in Woodstock -- a show entitled “Creating Outside the Lines” -- proved to be a social event enjoyed by all ages. Jonathan was joined by two grandmothers (one who came in for the event from Vancouver, WA), his aunt, his mother, father, and younger brother and sister.
As families browsed the halls, student docents eagerly stepped forward to talk about their production techniques and the artists -- Van Gogh, Chagall, Pollack, and Matisse, among others. They enthusiastically explained the methods and materials students used to simulate the techniques of master artists of the past and present.
In the cafeteria, desserts and beverages were available. People talked with neighbors and friends, and listened to musical performances by the students in Mr. Jamesbarry’s Recorder Club, Instrumental Band, and Orff Ensemble.
Running continuously in one corner was a video showing walk-throughs of homes that students had designed during an architecture unit in Mr. Jamesbarry’s Digital Arts and Technology class.
Students and parents were elbow-to-elbow in the school library, looking through a variety of books -- part of the PTA sponsored Scholastic Book Fair. “I am excited and happy to do it because it gets more books into the hands of children,” said Tracy Buckley, PTA President, who spent many hours organizing the fair.
Accompanying the children’s art on the hallway walls were notations about the vocabulary and lesson criteria used to create the paintings, drawings, and sculptures.
Throughout the hallways, student art displays were interspersed with quotations from famous artists and authors. “Every artist was first an amateur”, read one quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Drawing is coming face to face with yourself,” was an insight from Jackson Pollock.
A quotation from 19th century French painter and sculptor Edgar Degas seemed to sum up the evening: “Drawing is not what one sees, but what one can make others see.”