On April 17 and 18, the Perry Meridian gym was filled with artwork by kindergartners through high school students. While some of their pieces were made simply to fulfill the assignment’s criteria, others used this opportunity to feature deep, meaningful themes.
“It just helps send out a message … ,” senior Alexa Salas-Velazquez said. “It ends up being beautiful as well … You can say so much with art.”
For many young artists, this event, the annual Perry Township art show, was a chance to share more than technical skill. Some pieces tackled real-world issues, religious faith or raw emotion.
At each participating school, teachers like art teacher David Wissel chose two to three pieces per class that they believe best showcase the project’s criteria. But some advanced students, like Salas-Velazquez, could submit their own portfolios. Salas-Velazquez, who has created art since childhood, entered 13 pieces, three of them anonymously.
“I didn’t want it to be attached to me,” Salas-Velazquez said. “Not that I wasn’t proud of it, but being in the situation and place we are right now as a country … I think it says a lot when you’re too scared to say what’s on your mind honestly.”
One of her anonymous pieces was a watercolor painting referencing a tragic incident from a few months back in February. Jocelynn Rojo, an 11-year-old girl from Texas, had committed suicide because she was afraid her family would face deportation.
Rojo’s fear from being taunted by her bullies, who claimed they would call ICE on her parents, inspired the meaning behind the piece. Additionally, Salas-Velazquez says that this piece could possibly help the viewer realize that it’s not just Rojo who has gone through this, but others as well.
“To think that your parents could be taken away at any moment or be put into detention camps, it could be scary … ,” Salas-Velazquez said. “It really has you in that worry and puts you in that kind of fear. And that girl was scared … maybe (it has) you realize, this is not just her.”
Junior Hector Gonzalez is another student who had a multitude of pieces featured in the art show, with this being the first time he’s ever had any pieces in the showcase. His submissions included an exposed coil pot, marbling art and a hard slab construction of a miniature church.
“I wanted something I could keep in my room that reminds me of my faith … ,” Gonzalez said. “That’s why I decided to do the church. Most of it … it’s just to let go of my mind, just do random stuff here and there. But I think the most meaningful one for me has to be the church, because it just reminds me of my religion.”
Salas-Velazquez and Gonzalez are just a few of the students whose meaningful art was exhibited at the showcase for all who came to see.
Both were proud of their pieces, not just for the positive feedback and compliments they received, but for the (another word for message) they were able to express.
“Putting out a message like that or any work at all really … when they give out their reactions … it’s like ‘Oh, it was all worth it in the end,’” Salas-Valezques said.
