From the youngest artists to those who’ve been creating for years, anyone can be a creative influence. Throughout this month, the public is invited to come see creative collaborations between West Liberty students.
Brick Street Gallery special exhibit, March Madness & Monsters, will be on display through April 18. The exhibit opened March 14, and features hand-drawn art from Kelsi Lynch’s kindergarten classes paired with ceramic pieces inspired by the drawings from Morgan Forbes’ high school Ceramics 2 class.
“It was awesome collaborating with the high school class. We thought it was a big success,” Lynch said. This was the first year she had done a project like this, being inspired by a video she saw on TikTok.
Lynch said she kicked the project off by showing her class a book on monsters to help spark ideas before letting them get to work. “I made it very open-ended, and I thought the high school kids did a wonderful job of turning their creations into reality. It was really neat to see.”
For some kindergarten students, like Izzy Jackson, this project was right up their alley. Jackson said she already loved drawing dragons, though she had no specific inspiration for her monster. “I just drew! It’s kind of like a dragon.” Her piece had wings, horns, and a colorful tummy, but her favorite thing about her monster was its spiked tail.
Oliver Tinner loves art, and enjoys making science and sci-fi themed books with his drawings. “Making books is my favorite (thing to do) in art.”
Tinner created a “sad-and-mad monster”, inspired by his favorite colors, red and blue.
“I made a big circle, and then I made a half in the middle, and then made little spikes on the sides and big ones for the horns,” he said.
Meilani Franco, who likes drawing and coloring unicorns and Barbies, also combined her favorite colors by giving her monster green legs and a pink head, as well as five eyes.
Once the drawings were complete, they were given to Forbes’ class. Each of her students had to make at least five ceramic monsters, and those who finished early could make extras.
“I saw that it was doable, but I was a little skeptical just because of the sheer amount of kindergarteners compared to my Ceramics 2 class,” Forbes said. “This project probably took up half the trimester.”
If she were to do it again, she said she would want to begin earlier in the school year, spreading it across two ceramic classes. With so many pieces, Forbes sometimes had to energize her students and find ways to alleviate their stress.
Among sophomore Ximena Valenzuela’s pieces is one she made for her younger brother, Juan Ivan. “That was kind of nice,” she said.
Valenzuela enjoyed trying new techniques, and the trial and error that came with sculpting so many different pieces. “Some kids made their monsters really flat, so it was hard trying to figure out how to translate them into 3-D. That definitely took the most time to figure out. … But I felt like I had more freedom with it.”
Junior Bethzy Zamorano-Garcia said she enjoyed seeing the kindergartener’s drawings. “I thought the pictures were all really good. Some of them were confusing, but we still made it work, and it was a really fun project. At the same time, it was a really hard project because it was so time consuming. We didn’t want to rush it though, and it was still fun to do. It reminded me of my childhood when we used to play with mud.”
Zamorano-Garcia said she tried her hardest to make her pieces match the size and shape of the drawing. Enjoyed mixing colors to get the exact ones needed to match the drawing. “Just seeing the kids’ reactions afterwards was so cool, and I really liked the experience. It was really inspiring.”
Rebeca Fierro Perez said she and other students were more nervous about getting their pieces just right. “It was definitely hard trying to bring them to life. It was a very long and hard process, but we got used to it. Sometimes I didn’t really know what to do with my drawing, but it was really fun making the kids happy with them.”
Many students said they’d be willing to do it again, and Perez hoped the next Ceramics 2 class does the project too. Lynch and Forbes said they’d want to collaborate again, happy to hear their students enjoyed themselves.
Lynch is planning a project that can be done among the elementary, middle and high school. She wants her students to know their art can be done throughout school and beyond.
Beyond the community aspect of the project, Forbes said she saw it as a way to continue her overall lesson of thinking through the creative process. “I think it’s important to teach students and adults how to think visually, and to have that creative problem-solving. My goal is for them to take these skills they’re using in art and use them in the real world.”
Brick Street Gallery is open 2:30-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
During their visit, gallery guests can also enjoy other high school projects showcased there. Each high school solo piece is up for sale and can be purchased through the gallery.