Mesquite Fine Art Center is pleased to present a fine sampling of art from three Virgin Valley schools, showing March 1-27.
Despite the lack of opportunity to meet in normal classroom settings due to covid-19, students have been able to produce delightful pieces of art that reflect a variety of concepts and characters. Their work reflects a sense of whimsy, a wide stretch of imagination, and some reflective moments of self discovery.
Beaver Dam Junior Senior High School fills a wall of the Mesa Gallery with small-scale works in several mediums. Students from Grade 7 through 12 let their life attitudes shine through in their artwork that displays happiness and those things that make them happy: animals, flowers, and cartoons. Upper grade students also interject portraiture and emotion in their subject matter.
J. L. Bowler, Sr. Elementary students have incorporated a dazzling variety of topics and techniques in their work. Many display highly complex work that might ordinarily be expected of students in higher grades. Puzzles, landscapes, self portraits, and other subjects have been produced in watercolor, crayon, and pencil.
Virgin Valley High School art students present work in several genre. VVHS studio artists collaborated on an “art book” that contains sketches and works by many students. The “book” itself is open to a centerfold only, with other pages glued together, forming a solid, sculpted, tabletop display. Members of the studio art classes also did individual hanging art, some based on lessons in art history. Reflections of impressionism, pointillism, and surrealism demonstrate student understanding of those art periods and concepts. Other students show off their skills in various art mediums as they interpret their favorite cartoon
and action characters.
The photography department at VVHS always brings interesting scenes and portraits they have captured digitally. Their collection of photos is a nice comparison and contrast to the professional show offered by photographer Shirley Smith, VVAA’s Artist of the Month, whose body of work fills the fourth wall of the Mesa Gallery.
Visitors to the gallery are encouraged to contribute to the giant “scholarship jar” that awaits the generosity of those who view and enjoy the work of these students who have now spent most of their school year in virtual classes. Some of their art subtly shows the escapism and emotion that art allows them to express. In the face of alternate means of learning, they have accomplished very real artistic success.
Visit Mesquite Fine Arts Center, 15 W. Mesquite Blvd, Monday through Saturday, 10a-4pm.
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