Art imitates life in students’ projects

Students at Laguna’s Montessori School were given the opportunity to participate in a United Nations-endorsed art project Wednesday.

But more importantly, they got to cover their hands in paint.

The students are some of many from preschool to college age whose works will be on view at locations around the city over the next several weeks.

Montessori School

The Montessori kids were producing a mural for the Art Miles Mural Project, which was founded by retired United Nations executive Joanne Tawfilis.

In 1996, Tawfilis was in Bosnia, directing the Women in Srebrenica project; the women were the survivors of a genocide that killed about 10,000 of their husbands, sons and brothers.

While she was visiting a Bosnian orphanage, a child there told her that he wanted to make a painting on a bullet-ridden bedsheet.

He was joined by 350 other children in creating the first mural, which was started using duct tape to cover the sheet’s holes and white paint left by the U.S. Army.

The following year, Tawfilis officially founded the project with her husband Fouad to foster after-school activities and prevent youth violence. It was officially recognized by UNESCO in 2002.

Since then, more than 1,400 murals have been made in more than 100 countries; more than 41,000 people have contributed to their creation.

Children with no hands have painted murals with their feet; blind children have painted to music; and street children in Peru have painted by candlelight.

Tawfilis was on hand Wednesday to help the Laguna kids with their own mural, a 5’ x 12’ tribute to Maria Montessori’s “Cosmic Education” curriculum, which teaches children that everything in the world has a purpose, and that we are all interdependent on each other.

They filled in spheres representing animal life, climates and the classroom; parents helped define the designs, and painted a border around it which students then decorated with colorful handprints.

“It’s like a new baby whenever I see one,” Tawfilis said of the murals.

She urged the parent attendees to be advocates in bringing a mural “marathon” to Laguna, suggesting that kids’ outlines be traced on murals, which they could then fill in with their own designs.

Tawfilis’ goal is to create 12 miles of murals, to show at the United Nation’s “Exhibition of the Century” gala in 2010 in Egypt.

“It brings a lot of joy to a lot of people,” she said. “The beauty of this process is that it shows we’re all human.”

Each mile has a different theme, from fairy tales to mentors. Charles Michael Murray, whose son Oliver attends the school, was recently named as director of the Environmental Mural Mile by Tawfilis.

At Tuesday’s Earth Day celebration, which was coordinated by Murray, the children presented Earth Day founder John McConnell with their mural.

For more information on the school, call (949) 494-2411.

Even Start Preschool

Children participating in the Boys & Girls Clubs’ Even Start Preschool learned painting, collage and sculpture through weekly art activities given by Laguna Outreach for Community Arts (LOCA); their works are on display this month at the public library.

The Even Start Preschool Program is a free program for 3- and 4-year-old children from qualifying low-income families, who learn art from teachers like Pat Phillips, Gayle Foley, Sharon Risley, Carol Swanson, Lee Cohen, and Noel Lashley. Nonprofit Art4Kids holds an annual fundraiser to buy art supplies for the preschool.

LOCA held a reception for the young artists and their families on March 9 at the library, where they took part in refreshments, group reading and an art activity with children’s librarian Rebecca Porter.

“The art exhibit is an opportunity for the kids to have their work on display,” preschool Director Terry Anne Barman said; the artists are some of the youngest in Laguna to be exhibited.

“It’s just a thrill for them, and it’s wonderful that we get to expose the Even Start/LOCA collaboration to the community, since it’s been such a wonderful collaboration,” Barman said.

For more information on the preschool, call (949) 494-2535, ext.107.

Laguna College of Art & Design

The 33rd annual Color It Orange exhibition, an annual juried youth art exhibition of works by K-12 private and public school students at the Laguna College of Art & Design, received more than 3,500 entries this year.

The event was facilitated by LCAD support group Designing Women, and more than 100 volunteers contributed more than 1,000 hours for the event.

This year’s judges included Festival of Arts exhibitor and Orange Coast College instructor Pat Sparkuhl; California State University, Fullerton instructor Jim Dahl; and Bernie Jones, retired fine arts coordinator for the Garden Grove Unified School District.

The works range from paintings to sculpture to photography; more than 600 pieces will be exhibited at LCAD, 2222 Laguna Canyon Road, through March 25.

Each child whose work was selected was given a Polaroid photo of themselves with their art.

An opening reception and scholarship award ceremony was held last Sunday, where 10 high school students were awarded scholarships to attend portfolio development classes at the college this summer.

The scholarship winners were Mylinh Nguyen, Maurice Phillips, Arada Pratheepthong, Rob Martinez, Shaan Bevan, Stephanie Angus, Saniya Husain, Erin Fee, Naruaki Imaoka and Blanca Malfavon.

“Personal validation builds self esteem, and when it is accompanied by an entirely new respect from the family, it is life changing for all,” said Nancy Lawrence, president of Designing Women. “The experience of the exhibit is exposure to an explosion of ideas.”

New this year is a story created by a self-taught 10-year-old in PowerPoint, which will be projected in a continuous loop.

“We know this will stimulate video and computer artists to submit their work,” Lawrence said. “Technology is advancing — Photoshop printing on canvas — but nothing will ever replace the outstanding instructor.”

The show will be followed at LCAD by “The Best of the Best,” the college’s annual juried exhibition of original student artwork, which will run from April 1 to May 7.

The free exhibition will include fine art, illustration, graphic design and feature animation; all students are invited to submit pieces which are then juried by the college’s faculty and the Pacific Art Foundation’s Aimee Porter, Vivianne Browne, and Jay Slosar; the foundation also provided the show award funds.

An opening reception will be held during First Thursday’s Art Walk, from 6 to 8 p.m. April 5; cash prizes will be awarded to works in the categories of animation; drawing and painting; graphic design; illustration; hybrid; foundation; sculpture; and best of show.

For more information on the LCAD exhibitions, call (949) 376-6000.

St. Catherine of Siena Parish School

Over at the Laguna Art Museum, a show in the downstairs Young Artist Society Gallery features the work of K-8 students at St. Catherine of Siena Parish School, who were asked to visualize the future of Laguna Beach.

The students depicted colonies of ocean villages, recycled teleporting vehicles and modern retail environments, using painting, drawing and sculpture.

Each student created both a 2-D and a 3-D piece. The former was a depiction of Laguna Beach.

“They all had a different vision of how the water was part of our lives,” art teacher Christine Thomas said. “The kids decided that we would be living in the water, and the sea creatures would be living on the earth.”

The students reinvented beach volleyball with hovercraft shoes, Thomas said; they also added fast-food outlets to the landscape, and redesigned the city’s controversial lifeguard towers.

The kids’ 3-D pieces also had common themes.

“I’m up to my eyeballs in hovercrafts,” Thomas said. “The kids all brought in these crazy things, which they glued, taped and strapped into futuristic space vehicles.”

In keeping with the school’s push toward ecological awareness, the students used items formerly thought of as trash in creating their devices: egg cartons, popsicle sticks and kid’s meal toys became hot commodities.

“They realized that all of their garbage was funky art,” Thomas said.

“Fast Forward Laguna” runs through June 3, and is curated by Victoria Kogan Murphy.

For more information on the school, call (949) 494-7339.