Students show their talents during Artists’ Market
From the Mona Lisa to “American Gothic,” depicting subjects’ faces remains one of the most popular forms of artistic expression.
It’s not necessarily one of the easiest, though.
“I used to be terrible at portraits and terrible at drawing people or painting them,” Mt. Lebanon High School senior Eva Noroski admitted. “But once you practice enough, it will come to you.”
Judging by what she had on display over the weekend at the Mt. Lebanon Artists’ Market, she follows her own maxim.
As one of the school’s advanced placement studio art students who volunteered to conduct a variety of demonstrations during the two-day event, Eva had the opportunity to display some of her work, including a suitably thought-provoking likeness of one of her classmates.
“What I’m doing is exploring emotional connections through portraiture,” she explained. “So I’m picking interesting colors, interesting backgrounds, to portray how I feel about an individual whom I’m painting.
A dominant feature is a halo surrounding the subject’s head, fashioned with yellow foil and resembling a popular portraiture element leading into the Renaissance.
“I like the concept of it being flat because they didn’t understand dimension,” she said about the capabilities of Medieval-era artists.
Today’s artists have much more freedom of expression, which the Mt. Lebanon students demonstrated amply with work in a variety of media for Artists’ Market visitors to see.
“I’m proud of them, what they are accomplishing at their age,” high school visual arts teacher Jennifer Rodriguez said. “It’s so commendable that they’re here, and they’re representing our school district so well, with poise and confidence. They’re very articulate about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”
Rodriguez, who chairs the school district’s fine arts department on the secondary level and also sponsors the high school art club, constantly seeks outlets that give her students exposure to the public.
“Many of them are career-bound artists who haven’t had the opportunity for a real-world experience,” she explained. “It’s one thing to say you want to be an artist. It’s another thing to spend a day in this kind of environment, talking to people and explaining their work.”
A Mt. Lebanon High School graduate, Rodriguez credits her educational experience with her eventual career choice.
“I really became an art teacher because of my art teachers,” she said. “The art program has always been strong and always made an impact.”
Organizers of the Artists’ Market and its sponsoring agency, the nonprofit Mt. Lebanon Partnership, look to continue to strengthen the educational component by offering a scholarship to a local high school graduate who intends to major in art. Details will be announced later in the academic year.
In the meantime, Rodriguez acknowledges the encouragement that her students receive from the school district and beyond.
“I think there’s a lot of pride in Mt. Lebanon,” she said. “It makes me feel good to be a teacher here. It makes me feel good to give back to the community.”
Members of the community will have more opportunities to see examples of the students’ work, including the annual high school art show, scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. April 20. This year’s version featured more than 500 “gallery-quality pieces,” Rodriguez said, and she hopes to build on that for an even bigger display for 2018.