By RANDI WEINER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 29, 2006)
THIELLS - There's little that will give an artist itchy fingers like a blank canvas.
In the case of Fieldstone Secondary School art teacher Heather Lynch, the huge, white-painted panels on either side of the ninth-grade cafeteria just called out for color and life.
They used to be windows - part of the original Letchworth Village building incorporated in Fieldstone when it was built three years ago. But to Lynch, they were the perfect place for her eighth-grade advanced art students to replace theory with practice.
"We did a unit on color theory, and the students sketched out ideas for murals for each of the panels at the (cafeteria) entrance," Lynch said. "These are the most visible blank panels in the building. It would be nice to give the walls some color and show some school spirit."
For the past four weeks, the two dozen students in her after-school eighth-grade Studio in Art class tossed around mural ideas, made rough sketches and debated how best to fill the two 85-inch-tall by 37-inch-wide panels. Since the school is new, there are no murals on any walls as there are in other Rockland schools. Being the first group to touch paint to wall was a bit nerve-racking, Lynch said.
The final choice was a melding of sketches by 14-year-old Samantha Carlevaro and 13-year-old Rachel Dubicki featuring multicolored and multisize boxes and school symbols. One side shows the head of a panther - the school mascot - the other includes the word "Fieldstone" and a panther's paw. The boxes resemble confetti; "Fieldstone" is in red and white, the school colors.
"I thought of the boxes as being all connected in one way ... and I just thought it would give a real cool optical look. I like optical illusions," Carlevaro said. "The confetti theme is like a celebration."
Dubicki's colored boxes originally spilled from a more cardboard-looking box in one corner. The mural boxes stand on their own.
"I just thought, OK, everything's 'outside the box,' because that's what art is," Dubicki said. "You have to work freely and artistically."
By RANDI WEINER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 29, 2006)
THIELLS - There's little that will give an artist itchy fingers like a blank canvas.
In the case of Fieldstone Secondary School art teacher Heather Lynch, the huge, white-painted panels on either side of the ninth-grade cafeteria just called out for color and life.
They used to be windows - part of the original Letchworth Village building incorporated in Fieldstone when it was built three years ago. But to Lynch, they were the perfect place for her eighth-grade advanced art students to replace theory with practice.
"We did a unit on color theory, and the students sketched out ideas for murals for each of the panels at the (cafeteria) entrance," Lynch said. "These are the most visible blank panels in the building. It would be nice to give the walls some color and show some school spirit."
For the past four weeks, the two dozen students in her after-school eighth-grade Studio in Art class tossed around mural ideas, made rough sketches and debated how best to fill the two 85-inch-tall by 37-inch-wide panels. Since the school is new, there are no murals on any walls as there are in other Rockland schools. Being the first group to touch paint to wall was a bit nerve-racking, Lynch said.
The final choice was a melding of sketches by 14-year-old Samantha Carlevaro and 13-year-old Rachel Dubicki featuring multicolored and multisize boxes and school symbols. One side shows the head of a panther - the school mascot - the other includes the word "Fieldstone" and a panther's paw. The boxes resemble confetti; "Fieldstone" is in red and white, the school colors.
"I thought of the boxes as being all connected in one way ... and I just thought it would give a real cool optical look. I like optical illusions," Carlevaro said. "The confetti theme is like a celebration."
Dubicki's colored boxes originally spilled from a more cardboard-looking box in one corner. The mural boxes stand on their own.
"I just thought, OK, everything's 'outside the box,' because that's what art is," Dubicki said. "You have to work freely and artistically." |
