Page 16 - the NOISE January 2015

sTUDenTs reFlecT on THe FUTUre
FALA tALKS ted
Flagstaff Arts & leadership Academy students’ anonymous “Post secret,” is one project from this semester in Advanced
Mixed Media with Janeece Henes.
By CLAiR AnnA RoSe
in 2014 brandy’s restaurant and bakery won a Business truth are coming into me, and hopefully through my heart college. I really have a passion for seeing the world and not
for the Arts Viola Award. At the start of 2015, they contin- ue their support of the arts by hosting the Flagstaff Arts & leadership Academy’s student exhibition for the 16th year.
Janeece Henes teaches art at Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy (FALA) and tells me about the selection of work that will be on display for the show. “We will have drawings done with ink, charcoal and plaster gauze with mixed media. In my advanced Draw, Paint, and Print class students have been emphasizing negative space and created posters with causes they feel passionate about.”
I ask about this year’s group of young artists. “My students are amazing,” Ms. Henes says. “They are creating really mean- ingful work that is also very creative. With other colleagues I am taking 15 students on a Border/Mexico service expedition in January and 21 students to New York City in March. These students are invested in service, leadership and the arts to be socially responsible citizens with their passions.”
Ms. Henes’ encaustic paintings will be on display at Bran- dy’s during the FALA show. She creates her paintings using beeswax and pigment and the occasional mixed media as well. “My subject matter is simple but full of layers, textures and color.”
When I visit Ms. Henes’ mixed media class, the students are working on a project inspired by a TED talk by Candy Chang. Their project, Before i die... has prompted some amazing work, portraying through images their dreams and goals. The stu- dents are moving about the room gathering supplies, glues and paints, while some concentrate over their works in progress.
Some of the students in class agree to be interviewed about their art and while we talk they show me the project they are working on, as well as some pieces they have com- pleted earlier in the semester.
Kristina luthringer’s Before i die scroll shows a tree. “For the leaves I’m using symbols from cultures all over the world because before I die I want to travel the world and understand other people’s cultures. There’s not one section of the tree that represents a region, I want them all to blend together.”
A Senior in high school, Ms. Luthringer is considering going to Northern Arizona University for college. “I am not sure what I’m studying yet,” she says. “I heard that NAU has a great for- eign hospitality program. I would really like to go to England someday and I would also like to visit Spain and learn Spanish.”
Audrey Collette shows me her scroll. “Before I die I want to lessen the amount of sadness in the world,” Ms. Collette tells me. “This drawing is representational of myself. Up here are the cool colors and negative things: suffering, fear, and broken
positive things are coming out, like love and understanding.” “These are origami stars—up here they’re squished and de- formed,” Ms. Collette explains about the details of her piece.
“Down here they are whole. Origami is made from a flat piece of paper, but it is turned into something three-dimensional and the idea that something can be built up again, even if it looks completely worthless and to the point of no return is hopeful.”
Ms. Collette tells me about another piece she has made that is going to be in the Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Acad- emy’s 2015 Calendar. “It was an interesting process,” she says.
“I actually wanted to use my own body to convey a message about women in general and how we’re often seen for just our physical forms and not what’s inside of us, or what else we are made up of. I painted my body blue and made a print of my own body and built up flowers on top of it to show we are our physical selves—that’s part of us—but we have a lot built up inside of us that should be seen as well: our personal- ity and what we love, who we love, what we do, and how we impact the world.”
Ms. Collette has been a ballet dancer most her life and at FALA she is taking modern and Jazz dance classes. She is con- templating continuing dance in college, but also has dreams of studying art and business. “I think it would be really cool to own an art gallery,” she says. “I also had an idea to work with local artists. In bigger cities along metro and subway lines there are a lot of really ugly spaces that people see a lot. I thought it would be really cool to hire local artists through other organizations to make a unique piece of art for what- ever space that we found that was bare and that people saw every day—bringing art into everyone’s lives.”
“A lot of people in my class are focusing on one thing they want to do before they die, but I have so many things that I want to do,” Aria Levin tells me as she shows me her scroll, the paint still drying. “I tried to incorporate as many of them as possible in here. I have super small things, like I want to go to a ball. I also have bigger things, like I want to live in New York City for a Year. I want to see the northern lights at some point during my life. I want to take part in a protest. This is going to be a lady, her hair is going to be feathers and her body is going to be music notes, because I want to go to Carnival in Rio De Janeiro. I want to stare into the eye of a lion, and in- side the lion’s eye is the ocean, because I want to run into the ocean with all my clothes on.”
One of Ms. Levin’s plans after high school is to travel. “I love Flagstaff, but I am so excited to leave,” she says. “I want to take a gap year next year and travel as much as I can before
staying in one place and not doing one thing my entire life.” Halle Gauld shows me a mixed media project that was completed earlier in the semester. In the center of her project is an eye, and beside it, a quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti that
reads, “The ability to observe without evaluating is the high- est form the intelligent mind.”
“I started out with a piece of muslin, and then plastered over it,” Ms. Gauld says. Using paint, modeling paste and paper she continued to build layers onto her design. When that was complete she poured wax over the top of it.
While I am visiting, I ask her about the project she is work- ing on—an art book about trees. She slowly flips through the book, telling me the story behind each one, all inspired by her love for nature.
noa bass has loved going to FALA and being able to do art in school. She tells me about her piece titled, acceptance. “This is about how we’re not going to be here for a very long
time on this earth, so we might as well do what we love and what we enjoy,” she says as she gives me a tour of her project, directing my attention to each different area. “I love smiling, so I want to smile throughout my life. The flower represents how I want to bring life into the world at some point. I’m go- ing to put a picture of myself and silhouettes of faces there representing the people who I hope to meet.” At the bottom of her scroll she has pasted maps to show all the places she hopes to travel to.
Inspired by stained glass, Jazlee Crowley has sewn pieces of colored glass in parts of her scroll, bringing a lot of depth and color to her piece. A belly dancer and an artist, she says having a mother who is also an artist motivated her to create art. “We definitely have different styles,” she says. “I’m more into mixed media. She’s motivated me to carry art, do the best I can and know I can do this without being scared about failure.”
The Flagstaff Arts & leadership Academy student ex- hibition will be on display at Brandy’s Restaurant & Bakery, 1500 E. Cedar Ave, with an opening reception on January 29,
2015. Brandysrestaurant.com
Clair Anna Rose, a media mixer herself, is a con-
noisseur of glue, paste and all that adheres.
editor@thenoise.us
16 • january 2015 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us