Art Displays in the Library

If you’ve taken a trip down to the Maroon Library recently, you’d have surely seen the array of student artwork being displayed on the shelves. Every school year, Central art teachers get in touch with the library at various points throughout the semesters asking if they can display some of their students' work to which the library offers up the needed space.

“They need a place to display art and we have spots for them to do that.” Librarian Mrs. Pickell explained. “It’s not a very formal arrangement at all.”

These displays primarily showcase the best sculpture work from the 3rd and 6th-hour Ceramics and Sculpture Studio classes of the Fall 2021 semester. The miniature gallery was set up by resident art teacher Mrs. Stulpinaite as a way to celebrate her student’s work. 2021 was the first year Mrs. Stulpinaite taught Ceramics and Sculpture and she noted that she loved getting to see “the variety and the character each student [piece had].”

The displays are a great way for Central to get a teaser of the art classes available. “I just love seeing what the art students have done because we usually don’t go down to the art room at all.” Mrs. Pickell said. “So this is a way for them to highlight what they do.” For anyone interested in art, the displays are a great source of inspiration, along with some answers as to why art classes at Central might be what’s right for you. Mrs. Stulpinaite added that more information about Central’s art course offerings along with more student art was available on https://www.chsvisualarts.org/.

For students like Mario Morales, getting to show his work and receiving a positive reception from others has been an honor. Mario’s ceramic masterpieces, which were inspired by family memories, were a labor of love and an opportunity to learn something new. “The process was a bit difficult since I had never used those materials before,” Mario explained. “But everything was easier thanks to the teacher who explained [everything] to me very clearly and patiently.” He admitted that he had some challenges with the details on his pieces but he stated that it was “fun to learn a new technique.”

There’s one piece that always seems to catch the eyes of my peers and that’s the large stuffed animal among the rows of clay sculptures. Named Portabello and created by student Marissa Altaner, the plushie is based on a painting by the artist from her painting studio class. The stuffed animal reportedly took months to make with its long process of designing a pattern, cutting pattern pieces out of newspaper, figuring out viable color palettes, using the pattern to cut pieces of fabric, then sewing everything together. The assembly wasn’t without its challenges, however. “I ran out of fabric for the stuffed animal and then I went to the store and they didn’t have it anymore,” Marissa explained. “So I had to use a different color.” Marissa enjoyed getting to see her artwork displayed and shared with others and also has plans of setting up an Etsy page for her plushies (and maybe some ceramics) in the future so keep an eye out for that!

If you enjoyed getting to see all the student artwork, you should consider visiting the library in May where the Annual Student Art Exhibition, featuring work accumulated over all Central art classes that year, will take place. Until then, you can satisfy your art craze through viewings of Central’s previous galleries on the department website: https://www.chsvisualarts.org/chs-student-art-exhibition or supporting Central’s Art Club’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chs.visualarts.