`DREAMS OF PEACE; HOPES FOR OUR FUTURE'
“Dreams of Peace; Hopes for Our Future” is the theme chosen by Ukiahi art students for their April show at Art Center Ukiah. They could have come up with a simple concept that wouldn't have required any serious thought or soul searching, but they overwhelmingly voted to take this deep dive into a seriously provocative topic.
The idea originated in Lech Slocinski's dual enrollment class for advanced high school art students… MC Art 140. This is the first year this program has been offered. It's a three-unit collegelevel class taught at the high school, and participating high school juniors and seniors earn full college credit. Students focus in the class on creating their individual art portfolios as well as putting on art shows.
This show started with a loose idea to create something interesting, relevant and important for April at Art Center Ukiah. With encouragement to decide on a theme, art student Tiby-Ann Owen created a questionnaire in February that was distributed to students in all of the art classes taught at Ukiahi. She then collated over 120 responses in bar graph format to present to the committee of her classmates that were charged to choose the theme.
Almost all of the ideas fit under the loose umbrella of peace and hope, which was reworded to the show's title; “Dreams of Peace; Hopes for Our Future.”
Once the theme was chosen, students in various classes, supported by their teachers, began discussing how they would approach the project. Each class came up with their own unique response.
Students in the MESA program (taught by Sezgin Ramirez and Adelaida Torres), are creating an installation of over 700 origami doves. Sezgin laughs, “They have to use math principles to do the origami!” The students are still discussing the challenge of hanging the doves to convey both the ideas of pain and peace.
Jay Montesonti's metal shop students will be fashioning a bouquet of roses out of welded metal.
Students from Ollie PraxLodge's Spanish Language classes have spent the semester creating a beautiful display of “Alebrijes” (Angels of Peace) for the show. Ollie explains, “Earlier this year Miguel Quintana, a renowned fifth-generation artist from Puebla, Mexico, presented the traditional craft of alebrije making to students at Ukiah High School. Pronounced `ah-lehbree-hays,' these are traditionally very free-form creations representing a combination of features from various animals, some real and some imaginary… rendered in wood, wire and papier-mâché.”
Ollie continues, “The pieces the students made are a result of our Spanish class students' internalization and personalization of this art form. Each student has created a unique and detailed figure in a meeting of vision, craftsmanship and expression. These figurines may be seen as messengers of peace, bridging the gap between our world's challenges and the greater unity and love we
imagine and know to be possible.”
Three classes: advanced art (taught by Rose Easterbrook), advanced ceramics (taught by Jim Persky) and advanced fashion design (taught by Katrena Dursteler) are collaborating on an enormous dinner party installation inspired by the famous work of Judy Chicago. Details about this exciting project will be discussed in Part 2 of this article.
Students in Lech Slocinski's Art 140 class have been working together for several months to create and audition photos that express their individual responses to the theme… to hang on the walls to complement the installations.
Giovanny Barron was eager to talk about his participation. “This project is really special,” he says. “Everyone gets to focus on a topic like their culture, background, or personal interests; and it is uniting all the departments at the high school. The show is a nice way to put everything from the high school together and give it a spotlight. My own photos focus on sports and places in Mexico where my family is from. They will be proud. Photography can unite the world because it's important to see other cultures represented. We are all connected, but at the same time our diversity is important.”
Another participant, Devin Bushway, describes himself as “really into science.” He is using his skills as a photographer as a “good way to show how cool science is.” He elaborates, “Biology has to do with life. Without the plants on the earth we won't have any hope for the future. Science makes the world go around. When you get down to the molecular world, everything is science. To get that message across I am focusing on up-close images of both the natural world and the laboratory world.”
Emily Valle, who is the show's coordinator, sees her art as her voice. She explains, “This is a topic that needs to be addressed NOW for our generation. After COVID we all got antisocial and afraid, and took a step back. Now we are connecting with each other through this project and getting students involved in the community. We can use our art to express what we are feeling without having to say a lot. What do we see for our future? Our message is that we need to be taken seriously. We are taking the reins here and we need to be heard.”
“Dreams of Peace; Hopes for Our Future” is generously sponsored by Ukiah High School Retired Educators: Bob Bender & Beverly Spence, Jerry Garcia, Phil Gary, Glenn Gawel, Jim & Mary Hatfield, Holly Rodgers and Ron & Francine Selim.
The First Friday opening is on April 5 from 5-8 p.m. at the Corner Gallery. Live music will be provided throughout the evening by “Midas Well” aka Char Jacobs and Chris Gibson. The gallery is located at 201 S. State St. in Ukiah.