Ellis students share their art
Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 13, 2001
"We saw a need to share our artwork with the community," said art teacher Charles Banks.
Saturday, January 13, 2001
"We saw a need to share our artwork with the community," said art teacher Charles Banks. And so, on Sunday, Ellis Middle School students will share their creativity and their talent with Austin at the annual Ellis Fine Arts Festival.
Ellis Middle School presents an art show in the fall, spring and, for three years, have presented the Arts Festival in the winter.
The sound of music will fill the halls of Ellis’ commons area, as visitors view the artwork on display. Various individuals and student groups will be performing music selections in the commons area of the school. Selections will include music from "Titanic," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and many other vocal and string performances.
Ellis students have posted paintings and drawings on the walls, representing many different media and all ages at the middle school level. "The projects are grad standard connected," said seventh- and eighth-grade art teacher Lisa Tollefson-Larson.
Students will man the display area and answer questions as parents, friends and Austin area residents view the art.
Tollefson-Larson and Banks said that the students have used pencil, acrylic paints, oil pastels, markers and a mixing of medias to create the works on display. Each work is labeled with the student’s name, grade and an explanation of their project.
The students have created a wide range artwork, from op (optical) art to perspective drawings, from sculpture to self-portrait cartoons.
One project, which 16 students worked on, is "Matilda, the 2005 Wonder Woman." She is located above a doorway, down the hallway to the left of the commons area.
Made of styrofoam and paint, Matilda is an ongoing project conceived by students. Though the project was first conceived as a male football player, students instead decided to depict a woman with many interests.
She wears an iceskate, a tutu and a ballet slipper, and is surrounded by sports equipment, a teen magazine and an algebra book. The goal is to add items to her in future years to show the diversity of student interests.
Tollefson-Larson added that Matilda is "not specifically blonde and blue-eyed," which indicates that her creators wanted all students to be able to identify with her.
As to the other projects included in the festival, Banks said that "rooms" or dioramas students created in his class teach them problem solving and to be creative.
"When they start linking ideas and interacting, then the real learning takes place," added Tollefson-Larson.
Learning is part of the process of creating art, said Tollefson-Larson. One assignment asked students to incorporate a peace sign into a scene or design. While they created, students learned about diversity, symbolism, culture and race through discussions Tollefson-Larson led. Some of the peace posters included in the artwork display won recognition from the Lions Club and others were chosen as favorites by fellow students.
"Our goal is to provide students with a good experience in junior high so that they continue to have a high interest in art in high school," said Banks.
The festival is open to the public from 2-4 p.m. at no charge. Tollefson-Larson said that 250 to 350 people are expected at the event, but the two hour timeframe and the Vikings game means that people will be coming and going over the course of the festival. Refreshments will also be provided at no charge and door prizes will be given away.
Banks, Tollefson-Larson and art teacher John Sullivan encourage people to attend to support the students and to enjoy the fruits of the students’ creative labors.