When two Lakewood Junior High students were tasked with showcasing their own personality traits in an art project last year, they decided to take the project in a unique direction.
They didn’t know it then, but their outside-the-box thinking and one-of-a-kind vision would soon pay off.
Nia Russell
Now eighth-graders, Nia Russell and Maya Turner explored their creativity through the project during their seventh-grade visual arts class. Art teacher Sheryl Broz-England nominated Turner and Russell’s works, McLongboi and Smiley, for the Pickerington Local School District Student Art Gallery Spring Exhibition premiere in February 2020.
“We basically had to create a character that wasn’t necessarily human, but it was something that showed an emphasis of our personality,” Turner says.
Russell and Turner created their creatures on paper and with clay. Turner says working with multiple media was one of her favorite things about the project. The young artists each spent about one week on the project.
Broz-England says Turner and Russell always go above and beyond every art assignment that she gives them.
“They really took the lesson expectations and catered them to their own artistic style and to their own vision which is really impressive for young artists,” Broz-England says.
Russell depicted her personality using a clown.
“Clowns can look really scary, but I wanted it to show, like, she’s actually a sweet person,” she says. “Basically, don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Smiley, by Nia Russell
Russell used bright, bold colors to create her clown and, to give it an even more three-dimensional and dynamic appearance, set it against a black and white background.
Turner chose to represent herself as a multicolored alien. She says she used many colors to express her bright personality.
“It has really bright eyes to show that I like to see things differently than other people,” she says.
McLongboi, by Maya Turner
Turner’s alien has many arms, each creating a work of art of their own. She placed the alien in a room that pays homage to some famous artwork as well.
Both students were nominated by Broz-England to be in the Spring Art Show and were thrilled to have their art displayed for everyone to see, Broz-England says.
Though this project gave students the opportunity to showcase just how creative they are, they both enjoy creating outside the classroom, too.
Turner says art is something that she has always been good at and is something she has enjoyed her entire life. For Turner, it is a hobby that keeps her happy.
Russell says the best thing about art is how it allows her to do and create whatever she can imagine. She loves that there is no right or wrong way to create art, and it is her favorite way to express herself.
Maya Turner
Turner agrees and loves to express herself through her creativity and artwork. She says she likes to create original pieces rather than base her work off of other artists or people, and make her artwork completely her own.
“It’s just something that you can have a brain explosion on,” Turner says.
Their art teacher agrees that art is something that comes naturally to these two artists.
“They really looked at what was being asked and how they could make it unique in their own style,” Broz-England says. “They kind of pushed the envelope, they went outside of the box a little to show their own artistic voice.”
Turner’s preferred medium is colored pencils and charcoal because she loves the depth these tools add to her artwork.
Russell says she enjoys working with watercolor and draws a lot of inspiration from her mom when creating her pieces.
“My mom inspires me to do art because she shows me different strategies, styles and tools,” Russell says.
Maddie Gehring is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
