Art of all kinds filled the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center Thursday night during the 2013 WCHS Fine Arts Festival. And hundreds of people filled it, too. “I think we’ve had the biggest turnout ever in terms of the number of people we’ve had,” Don Swartzentruber, art teacher, said. The 34th annual Tri Kappa Art Exhibit in the Black Box Theater showcased student work in everything from paintings and drawings to graphic design and pottery. In the auditorium, the public could choose to watch dance performances, the Fifth Annual Short Film Festival, the jazz band or the strings ensemble. In the lobby, there were demonstrations of the potter’s wheel and stone carvings, while individual musical performances were given on the small stage. Culinary arts students walked around, offering appetizers and desserts they made. Local artists’ works were displayed in the glass cases as part of the first annual Robbins Juried Art Show. The pieces were juried and selected by Advanced Placement Studio Art students. The sponsorship and funding of the WCHS Art Exhibit is the Tri Kappa associate chapter’s largest project. Awards were given for different media represented. First place for “senior showcase” was awarded to Kiara Stewart. “I like to bring a lot of conceptual things in (my art), especially with psychology,” she said, describing her work. While she does do some aesthetic pieces, she said she wants bring in ideas in her art that have nothing to do with it and then represent that visually. One piece, “Asylum,” is based on people seeking political asylum in the U.S. But then they get locked up and the key is thrown away, she said. It’s inspired by the book “Do They Hear You When You Cry?” “I’m a very academic person. I like to marry the two (academics and art),” Stewart said. Gabe Eberstein used a variety of things for his art, including colored pencil, graphics and graphite pencil drawings. “I wanted to take on feminism from a sarcastic kind of angle to make people realize how much we objectify women,” Eberstein stated. In the pin-up collection he created, he shrank the women’s heads, enlarged their legs and expanded their shoulder width to give them more of a masculine look. “I looked through different pin-up images to get a feel of the ’40s time period,” he said. Much of his work was inspired by Gil Elvgren and Betty Page. Eberstein took third place in printmaking, third in graphics and won the Art Club Scholarship, plus several honorable mentions. Josh Norman took third place in Senior Showcase, first and third place in drawing black and white and several honorable mention awards. Based on the 1920s, his focus was a transition of style from full lines to no lines at all in his most recent works. “It just kind of happened,” he said. Among Jenna Bragg’s honors was the Art Club Purchase Award. “I used water and India ink. Some are just with watercolor. It’s a take on simple fashion. I love very loose sketches and that’s just the kind of look I went for,” she said. She also does pottery and received several honorable mentions. Ashleigh Madden’s art is in photography. Her 12 large photos were of different mouths with different foods in them. “It’s kind of more conceptual. You take one beautiful thing like the mouth and you combined it with one other beautiful thing like food. Why does it become disgusting? That is the question the person looking at the art must answer,” she said. Andrew Jeffreys concentrated on graphic design. Most of the posters he created were for the night of one-act plays in conjunction with the theater department. He also displayed some of his work on a computer, which showed people changing into other things like an apple or a faceless creature. “My focus for class was based on the book ‘Winesburg, Ohio,’” he said. The idea that kicked it off for him was that at the start of the world there were truths and people. The people corrupted the truths and they became grotesque. Swartzentruber said the art students just turned in their portfolios to the College Board for Advanced Placement, and then had to turn around and get their work for the art festival together. “Each kid has a different focus, from painting and printmaking, to photography and graphic design,” Swartzentruber said. “One of the strengths of the program is we have four different teachers pouring into these kids. “This year, the AP class is twice as big as it was last year so we have twice the number of students,” he continued. Because students are in AP, they are encouraged to be more conceptual. The idea behind AP classes is that they are more college-like, he said. While some pieces may be more commercial, many works will have some theme to them. “The kids are great. It’s a blessing to be able to work with these kids. This was worth giving up being an arts director for. They’re good kids. They want to learn and they’re excited about the next stage of their life,” he said. Graphics and photography teacher Kelly Morrow said, “I’m impressed with the breadth and depth of our seniors this year. Overall, that’s what got them attention this year.”
