Joanne McQuarrie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
From paintings to sculptures to drawings, the collection of work by young artists in Jasper created a colourful display at the Student Art Exposition at Habitat for the Arts, Sept. 14 to 16.
"There are no limitations in art," said Vanessa Martin, who will be starting her fifth year of teaching art classes at Habitat. She's also an educational assistant at Jasper Elementary School.
"It's a path to expression, all kinds of expression,” Martin said. "There is an ease to doing art with children because they are always ready to do it."
The creations at the show were done in Martin's classes last year, when there were between 20 and 30 students.
The sessions run from November to March and the exhibition is usually held in April, but was delayed because of the pandemic.
Last year they ran three days a week, for about an hour and 20 minutes each. Martin will fine tune this year's schedule as the time draws nearer to when they start.
"I will do something a bit different," she said.
"Usually I include all mediums in a class. This year I want to make a big difference. There'll be eight weeks of pottery first, then I'll move to something else. We'll see it where it takes us."
Martin said this year is a celebration.
“It’s an achievement," she said. "The beauty is the students have returned each year. There's a total of four students who were here the first year and are here today. They were in grade two and now they're in grade seven.
"We've shared a lot of art experiences. I've seen them develop as artists. I can see the evolution of their artwork."
Martin has experienced an evolution of her own. She studied art for six years at the Paris Cergy National Graduate School of Art, in a variety of mediums. Martin moved to Canada 17 years ago, and to Jasper 15 years ago. These days she focuses on writing and drawings.
"I like to draw with BIC pens and pencils," she said.
One of her students, William Lescard, eight, enjoys doing pottery and sculpture. He started classes two years ago.
"Sculptures are my favourite," he said. "That's the only thing I can make at my house."
He made a crane.
"It came up in my head," he said. "I made it out of two ice cream boxes and I taped them together. I had three other cardboard toilet paper rolls.
"It's really fun - art. It's important to people because when they get bored, they can sell it. They should start making art...it's really fun. It makes me feel really happy."
William said he will continue to do art for a few years.
Elliot Vassallo, eight, started doing art two years ago "because I went to art exhibitions and I thought it would be fun”.
His favourite kind of art is drawing.
"I use markers," he said. "I like to draw burritos because they look good - bacon, eggs, cheese and peppers - and hard candy. I like drawing burritos with candies. I don't eat burritos with candies but I like to draw burritos with candies."
Elliot likes doing pottery too. A finger puppet he made was on display at the exhibition.
"I made a lemonade stand for the finger puppet to stand beside," he said. "I like to paint people and everything with a smiley face on it."
Karleigh Vassallo, almost 12, has been doing art for five years.
"I was my brother's (Elliot's) age,” she said. “I started because we were looking for an after-school activity and it looked like something new to try."
One of the first things Karleigh did was a self portrait.
"It looked pretty normal except for the crooked head," she grinned.
"I really like to do pottery, sculptures and bowls - that's my favourite thing to do. When I do my art I like to think of stories that the art would represent."
A couple of years ago, Karleigh created a story and drew an owl to go with it.
"It ended up looking like a wild chicken," she said. "That's how I started incorporating chickens into everything."
Today, 'Bob' the chicken is part of most of Karleigh's creations.
She said: "I like abstract artists because when you look at their art, you can put it together the way you want to."
Art, Karleigh said, "is important because it's something you can do - you can be creative and you can do whatever you want. There's no boundaries."
Martin pointed out that art teaches skills of observation. "
That's really specific to art," she said. "And it brings people together."
