Cedar Shoals High School

Stephanie De La Cruz

12th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Laura Lee Johnson - Art Teacher

Memories

Graphite, ink, collage

In art class, we learned about Linnentown, a thriving, self-sustained all Black Athens neighborhood off Baxter and Church street that was destroyed in the late 1960’s to build the student dormitories of Creswell, Brumby and Russell. This drawing of Geneva Johnson Blasingame, one of the surviving residents of Linnentown, is supposed to illustrate that she, along with all other former Linnentown residents, is still connected with Linnentown. She is part of the soul of Linnentown, just as Linnentown is part of her soul. In the background, I added a quote from Geneva, “They erased everything they could, but they couldn’t erase our memories.” The white surrounding her represents her strength, which are her memories of the event. The background shows a map of Linnentown, showing her connection to it. This piece is supposed to represent the strength and ability to persevere that comes from within her which allowed her to bypass obstacles in her way.

Kayla Schlueter

12th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Laura Lee Johnson - Art Teacher

193 Lyndon Row

Color pencil and graphite

Linnentown, a once thriving, self-sustaining all Black Athens neighborhood off of Baxter and Church street was destroyed in the late 1960’s (for what was called “Urban Renewal”) to build the student dormitories of Creswell, Brumby and Russell. To honor the memory of Linnentown and bring awareness to the trauma the residents went through, I drew on top of a house inspection document that confirmed that a house in Linnentown had been burned and replaced by a sewer line. I picked out the symbols of fire and roots to include in my Linnentown piece. The roots represent the people of Linnentown and their ties to Athens, while the fire represents their roots being destroyed. The eyes represent awareness and aim to inspire empathy for the people of Linnentown. The pipe at the bottom represents the sewer line that was mentioned to have been built where this house on the document once stood. My hope is to show how the people of Linnentown had to go through this struggle, but also show how what remains can regrow.

Esmeralda Figueroa

12th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Laura Lee Johnson - Art Teacher

Suspended in the Air

Watercolor, collage, ink, marker

This painting was one of my personal favorites this semester, it was my first time ever doing a massive project including collage of magazines. The overall process was very fun and flexible, and I’d love to do more collage in the future. I view this painting as one of my personal works, because I did incorporate me and my significant other. I illustrated how relationships involve two people growing together, and helping each other grow individually. Many relationships are different such as each flower represent here are quite different. I also associated nature with my religion, I’m Christian and in my belief God has created everything and He has set everything in its place perfectly. Me and my significant other have connected into a strong relationship because of our religious beliefs. In my relationship especially, my significant other has helped me grow as a person, I’ve never connected with someone so perfectly as I do with him.

Nancy Suarez Gonzalez

12th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Laura Lee Johnson - Art Teacher

Untitled

white charcoal pencil

When creating this artwork I was trying to show the feeling of hope and looking forward to the future. The butterflies represent my heritage, Hispanic, but Mexican in particular, hope, and change. I wanted to include these because it hit me that I’m going to be a senior next year and an adult soon to go to college. I am a daughter of immigrant parents and I want to do my best to fulfill my parents American dream that they never had, I don’t want to take their hard work for granted, or let it go to waste. As for the cat, it represents desire, healing, and myself. My desire to succeed in life and my dreams. I know growing up can be bittersweet, so this is where the healing comes in. And as for myself, like a cat, I am ready to always explore new things and thrive.

Ana Mowrer

10th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Laura Lee Johnson - Art Teacher

Bent

graphite and pastel pencils

This piece is a self portrait. I used pastel pencils to draw it. I tried to make it look very smooth and that worked out. I had some trouble with drawing the wood texture but I think the harshness creates a nice variety in texture. The face is being distorted by the glass symbolizing the subconscious distorting how the conscious feels about something. Our relationships are affected by our minds distorting was is actually happening based on our own experiences and ideas. The thoughts you don’t realize tend to be the ones that affect you the most.

Ariana Duarte

12th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Laura Lee Johnson - Art Teacher

Still Life

graphite

My still life represents a sense of tranquility. This piece embodies me as a person. It shows quietness yet a feeling of perseverance. There is a sense of softness, delicateness, and dignity that I hope uplifts others.

Kameran Brown

9th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Adrienne Shapiro - Art Teacher

Spirit of Friendship

Watercolor and Acrylic

The dolphin represents trust, loyalty, spirit of friendship. The medium I used for the shapes in my animal is watercolor. For the background I used acrylic paint as my medium. I used value gradation on/in the shapes of the dolphin and some on the rose.. In my composition I used some circles to create emphasis on my focal point. I used the color Blue to communicate a stable mood.

One challenge I had was with the water color, I was trying to add color to ones beside each other. Something I liked doing was painting the background. I like how my work turned out.

Sebastian Caillault

9th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Adrienne Shapiro - Art Teacher

Clairvoyance

Watercolor and Acrylic

I chose to draw a lynx. It symbolizes that I am clairvoyant. I used watercolor and colored pencil for the animal. I used watercolor and acrylic paint for the background. I used value gradient on the sides of the chess board and in the geometric shapes that make up the lynx. I painted a white circle behind my lynx to emphasize it.

One challenge I had was keeping paint inside of lines and shapes. Something I liked doing was painting with acrylic paint. I like how my work turned out because I successfully created a color gradient and value gradient and didn’t make any significant mistakes.

Kimberly Villalobos

11th Grade - Cedar Shoals - Adrienne Shapiro - Art Teacher

Lobo

Watercolor and Pastel

My animal is a Wolf which represents my last name. The color I used for the shapes in my animal is blue. For the background, I used all colors of the colors to communicate a happy mood.

I used watercolor and pastel pencil as my medium. I used value gradation on/in the background and on the wolf. In my composition I used a rhomboid to create EMPHASIS on my focal point. One challenge I had was the value gradation with watercolors the pastel pencil helped to make smooth value gradation. Something I liked doing was creating the color with watercolors and making it colorful.