This video is about Erica Huntzinger, our FA2016 Artist in Residence. She talks about her experiences as our artist in residence at North High, ways in which she grew as an artist, benefits she sees from providing this art program to the North High community, and her final thoughts being our Fall 2016 artist in residence.
Running Time: 13:06
Happy New Year 2017 all! My residency is winding down and there is still so much to do and create. It has been an incredibly rich and wonderful time being here. Posted below are some of the current things going on…
This is an image of the large mural we have been working on with Beth and her students. They have finished stage 2, watercolor painting over their drawing. This will be their creation of a winter scene for their large bulletin board in the basement. Stage 3 to come next week….snow.
The clay work done by several students in now finally out of the kiln and ready to be glazed for their final firing. You are able to see the detail and objects they impressed into the clay. Stay tuned
Updates on some of the other projects: the postcard project didn’t get off the ground but it is a good idea for possibilities in the future. The elevator proved to be too difficult and late in beginning to tackle. However, there is a very special project connecting 2 of the classes with students who have extra needs with some of the engineering students. Photos and explanations to come soon… very exciting. The Honors Humanities class with Mr. Soik are working on ArtPlosion final visual art piece to tie together some of the big ideas they discovered in reading and talking with each other. There will be an end of the year book that documents some of their creations, documentations and finds.
My exhibition in up in the NHSARTifacts Gallery on the 2nd floor. There are 18 wooden paintings with an artist statement about the work. There will be a reception this Thursday from 3:45 – 5:00p. Please join us. 
Marty is our fourth artist in residence at Sheboygan North High School. A reception is a great way to celebrate the success of the artist’s accomplishment during our Spring semester. Although his time was dedicated to connecting with NHS students and staff he also created several paintings. Receptions are always unpredictable. It is probably one of the most nerve racking parts of being an artist because you never know who is going to show up.
In this case, Marty had a fab turnout. It was great to see our administration present, aspiring poets, fellow colleagues, former artists in residence, and friends. For the third time, Ms. Cavanaugh’s poetry students wrote poems based on a painting from the artist they liked and read them to the people present. The poetry readings are starting to become a tradition that has found a home at NHS. Marty shared how his paintings were influenced by ecology. Mr. Soik, Honors Humanities teacher, shared how having Marty weekly made a difference in how his students interacted with the artist resulting in a beautiful assemblage.
This program has presented many wonderful opportunities to strengthen our bond as a North High community as well as to welcome unexpected events and embracing them whilst letting things flow where they may.
Title: Excited About Something
Location: Silver Lake College, Lake’s Edge Gallery, located on campus at the Franciscan Center for Music Education and Performance, 2406 S. Alverno Road. There is a reception for the students on May 9, 5-6pm.
Exhibition Dates: March 28 – May 9, 2016
Description: Art students from Sheboygan North High School created sixteen works of art ranging form paintings to collages and drawings to ceramics for their exhibition, “Excited About Something”. This exhibition explores the idea of self-expression without structural boundaries. These student artists selected their own substrate, thematic unit, and intent for their artwork.
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Teacher Statements
Mr. Frank Juarez, “Stroke”, acrylic on canvas, 16”x10”, 2016
My paintings are driven by a collection of certain things I feel can influence my work. In my studio I reduce those visuals into paintings with a minimalistic approach. Through my practice, I am able to bring what is important to the surface so that the viewer can interpret his/her own meaning.
Teacher: Mrs. Antoinette Mattern, “The Perfect Breakfast”, Oil on Canvas, 16” x 28”
I really enjoy drawing and painting portraits. People are so interesting! I was inspired to make an Impressionist-style painting of my teen-aged son and daughter as they were having breakfast one morning. They each had “perfect hair,” which is very important if you are in middle school. The peaceful way that they enjoyed their pancakes, along with the beautiful colors in our kitchen that morning, seemed to call me as a mom and as a painter. I really wanted to capture the positive feeling of the moment. I used gestural lines to block in the shapes, and I left some of the distorted perspective to increase that feeling of a fleeting moment.
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Student Statements
Esther Segura, Rebirth, oil on canvas, 2016
The trees are on fire. The ground is black and the fire lights up the sky. The sky has different shades of red and brown. In this painting the trees are a dark brown with some green and black. This painting represents rebirth and second chances. In the painting there are trees on fire. One of the trees is burning to the ground. The sky is lit up with color red. After the trees burn new trees and other plants can grow. This is a cycle that allows plants to regrow and start over. When a forest fire starts it destroys the trees but over time more plants and trees will grow again. This painting means that after something bad happened that a good thing can come out of it too.
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Katie Mendini, “Impure”, acrylic on canvas, 8”x8”, 2016
The internal battle between the good intentions and compulsive, sometimes dark, nature of each individual is depicted. Although the white seems to overpower the bold colors of black and red, they manage to be seen on the other half, and through the gaps of the purity.
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Brittany Wolf, “Small Different Worlds”, collage on canvas, 10”x10”, 2016
It tells you that everyone is different and we should respect everyone no matter where they came from.
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Mikayla Mork, “Sweet Nectar”, collage on paper, 12”x12”, 2016
The inspiration for this piece came from my previous experiences with collage and nature. I wanted to change the action of the subject in the work to form a simile between bad habits and how they feel to an individual.
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Abrille Johnson, “Out of touch”, oil on canvas, 20”x20”, 2016
This painting is about a girl who feels lost because of family health problems that seem to get worse, she looking back on earth because she feels out of touch from society and she doesn’t fit in. She has no one who understands what she is going through so she feels alone.
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Monica McClure, “Galaxy”, acrylic on canvas, 20”x20”, 2016
My painting is about a full moon in a galaxy sky with a shadow tree and blue greenish grass.
This painting is about being free and just go with it. To see what happens I mixed the colors while the paint and wet. By making the darkness and lightness in the sky it makes the painting stands out with the purples, pinks, and blues. My painting makes me feel calm. It looks like a real place that I want to go to lay down in the grass, look up into the sky above and rest my eyes to relax.
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Melicia Sigala, “Aberration”, ceramic, 2016
Mistakes are an art of their own.
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Ailen Flores, “The Modern City”, Acrylic on Canvas, 8” x 10”, 2016
I was just visiting New York City in December. I wanted to make a painting to show the tall buildings. I used bright colors because I wanted to make it look modern.
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Sabrina Bennett, “In the Mind of Others”, Acrylic on Canvas, 8” x 10”, 2016
The purpose behind this canvas is that everyone, everywhere is different. It is saying how a man could have multiple personality disorder while a woman could be anti-social, etc. What and who inspired me to make this artwork was that I was working on a picture for a poetry booklet, but I had it the wrong way, so I decided to try and make a painting of it. Then my friend, Mason Tipton, told me I could make it about mental disorders. He even made me a list of mental disorders as a reference. My friend Talya Thurs said I could use the color blue to represent depression.
This painting was a way for me to paint something that was fun, creative, and would look fun in a gallery. What it means to me is that not everyone understands the mental disorders that are out there. No matter the color of your skin, anybody can have a mental disorder of some kind.
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Jennette Zachow, “The Guardians”, Acrylic on Canvas, 8” x 10”, 2016
The title of my piece is, “The Guardians” I call it this, because the two figures drawn are meant to be seen as illusions, or guardians of nature. The purpose behind my piece is to draw attention to the destruction and pollution of the world. The two figures, or Guardians represent nature, one can be seen with a sad expression on it’s face. The sad expression on one, and the lack of a face on the other are representations of the sadness and despair they feel to have to watch the destruction of the world. I was inspired to create this, by a conversation I had about the Sheboygan River. My step-dad had made a comment about how grossly brown it was, and my mom said that it was clearer usually but because of a storm dirt was drug up to the top of the river. I couldn’t help but think that it was always this gross color, and it wouldn’t be if it weren’t for pollution of the river. I started out with a set of colors that looked nice together, and then went to different color schemes for each Guardian.
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Tyler Galicia, “Madvillainy”, Acrylic on Canvas, 10” x 10”, 2016
What is it’s purpose: To me it has less than the average painting as while it is visually pleasing it lacks originality, and while this wasn’t what i was planning at first i guess it ended up being a nice mistake.
For me really i can say i was more or less thinking of myself while painting this as i think highly of this album in general and with that being said i really took a liking to the cover, with it being a black and white photo but the person in the photo also wearing a mask led to an interesting amount of lights and darks. Overall it was also an easier thing to approach as skin tones aren’t my thing. I need really understood the orange square in the upper right corner but from what i can assume it’s there to keep it from looking so gloomy.
Method: I went with darks and grays with choosing this as i stated earlier skin tones aren’t my thing. I gotta say it went from looking terrible at first to becoming something beautifully complex and i’m happy for it. I guess if i were ever to go about this again i’d plan something in the chance of it and go about something original as opposed to this.
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Nikki Chanthima, “Untitled”, Acrylic on Canvas, 10”x8”, 2016
I make art to express what comes to my mind. Art makes me feel like I’ve released the creative side of me. My friend Natalie, inspired me to create more art. I quit drawing for a year, but she helped me get back to it. I used a stretched canvas and acrylic paint to achieve my artwork. This painting makes me think the girl is mortal and makes everything calm again.
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Lourdes Segura, “Hennette”, Acrylic on Canvas, 10” x 8” 2016
The meaning behind the painting is that every person in the world has a beautiful face. There are many different and unique features on a face that differ on people. The girl’s face within the painting is representing the way I see some beauty of different people within the girl I designed. Her hair contains multiple colors, including a medium brown, red, and yellow. The dots upon her face are like a tattoo. I love to see the beauty in everything in life, no matter what it is. Within the paint there is a little heart next to “PTV” and music note on the side, which represents my favorite band, because the music they made helped me through some stuff. In the beginning there was no plan on what I was going to paint, but in the end the paint turned out to be beautiful to me.
The North High art department is happy to announce that Mr. Juarez and Mrs. Mattern’s art students will be exhibiting at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc. The exhibition will run from March 28 – May 9, 2016. There will be reception for the students – TBD.
Silver Lake College, 2406 South Alverno Road, Manitowoc, WI 54220, www.sl.edu
Congratulations to senior, Jamie X, for being selected as one of four students whose work is featured on this year’s JMKAC YAM Postcard. You can see this piece along with 300+ others on Sunday, February 21. There is a student reception from 11am-3pm at 608 New York Avenue in Sheboygan.
Come celebrate the success of these fab art students from across the county.
postcard courtesy of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Liz Ann Lange is about to wrap up her residency at Sheboygan North High School. She is the third artist in residence that we have had in the past 1.5 years. This program is supported by the Sheboygan Area School District and Sheboygan North High School. It is always magical to see student interact with professional artists. There is always a high level of enthusiasm in the air.
The Sheboygan North High Artist in Residence Program is designed to expose, educate and engage the North High community to local and regional artists each semester during the current academic school year.
Running time: 9:48
In about one week the first semester will end. I cannot believe how fast this school year has gone. Great stuff happening!
Below is a snapshot of what the art students are working on from still life drawings to typography and sculpture to drawings.
A few days ago I noticed a semi-finished painting by senior Mikayla resting on her work table. The painting had a series of legs collaged at the top of her canvas and a woman resting towards the bottom. To the left of this canvas was a sketch of an idea, “What’s the Point?” Although we talk on a daily basis how often does a teacher really inquire about a student’s process? After all, haven’t we seen it all? I have found that students tend to shy away from sharing their personal thoughts, but are willing to share their ideas. I was curious as to how she went from this sketch to her collaged painting. Here is what she had to say about her process.
Sketch by Mikayla
Before I started this piece I had already cut out the girl on the bottom I thought that could possibly use it later in another piece. I then chose it for this particular piece because the girl was in the water; it reminded me of the Little Mermaid. I cut the swimming cap off of the original picture and set it in my sketchbook. Lately, I have been interested in simple line drawings, so I started adding her red hair in. To go with my theme, I looked up “the dark side of the Little Mermaid.” There I found that in some version of the story Ariel was turned into a human so the Prince would love her, but it did not work. He loved some other girl. Ariel became depressed and jumped back into the sea where she died (when mermaids die they become sea foam). After having that in my mind, I look at my sketch. I still wanted to have some collage aspect to it. I thought, “what was a big thing in the story?” Legs. The Little Mermaid wanted legs.
I got to work. I started cutting out all these legs. I placed them in a row overlapping each other. I liked the idea, “How far away should she be from these legs?” I thought. I was thinking that some distance between her and them showed some sort of representation. That she could never really be human, the Prince would never love her. I created a large canvas and went straight to painting. I added the sea foam at the bottom from the story I read. I wanted this piece to evoke sadness and I think, “What’s the Point?” really adds to it. – Mikayla
“What’s the Point?” (detail)
Today one of my AP Studio Art student, Mikayla, had the opportunity to Skype with Brooklyn-based collage artist, Jay Riggio. She recently finished one of her AP Studio projects focusing on ‘atlered realities of Fairy Tales’, which led to this conversation with Jay about his artistic process, influences, time management, source materials, and so on.
About Jay
Jay Riggio created his first collage over 15 years ago. His inspiration came from the overwhelming desire to tell a visual story without the classic ability to illustrate.
Drawing on influences from a background in writing and film cinematography, Jay uses images from vintage magazines and books to create collages that explore his interpretations on life, love, humanity, humor and dreams.
Using an X-acto knife, scissors, and glue, Jay’s pieces bring together unrelated images that create unique visual perspectives. His collages have been featured in galleries throughout the US and around the world.
Jay currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Follow him on Instagram. @jayriggioart
Follow him on Tumblr. jayriggioart.tumblr.com
Text: courtesy of the artist.
nhsartdept.com 