Carriage Barn Arts Center opened student art exhibition on February 28th
Carriage Barn Arts Center in Waveny Park is hosting a student exhibition, Through Our Eyes III. Although it was mandatory that students taking Advanced Studio Art submit a piece to the show, the show provides an opportunity for artists to publicly exhibit their work.
Junior Corinne Vietorisz, an AP Studio Art student, discussed how she prepared for the show. “I just chose some of my best work to showcase my talent, and chose something representative of myself as an artist. It definitely allowed me to show some pieces I was really proud of,” she said. “They represent my style well, and it’s fun to be able to see my work in an art gallery like this.”
Advanced Studio Art student and junior Daniela Villa used this opportunity to motivate herself to create work specifically for the show throughout the first half of the year. “Since the start of the school year I’ve pushed myself to dedicate a good deal of my time to create and produce the best work possible,” She said. “And when the time finally came to submit work for the show I was able to pick and chose my favorite pieces.”
Artist Corinne Vietorisz created a painting for the exhibition.
Both students felt that the work they submitted represented elements of what sort of art styles they were interested in. “The first piece I submitted is a clay elephant head that was derived from a drawing I had created in my sketchbook that I really enjoyed creating. It is inspired by the Indian culture and is filled completely with henna designs. I thought it would look really cool if it was re-created in a 3D medium,” she said.
Corinne created her pieces with the same idea. “The pieces I submitted are a colorful surrealist painting and a painted wooden tree sculpture. I chose these pieces because they represent my style well and show two different types of media: 2D and 3D,” she said.
AP Photography student and senior Lindsay Shanley talked about the work she did to get ready for the show. “To prepare the pieces, we have to cut out specific mats to frame them for display in the Carriage Barn,” she said. “In terms of creating the photograph, we just chose the best piece that we had from these past months of work. It was interesting to be able to reflect on the styles we used in each one to pick our favorites.”
AP Photography teacher Jeanne McDonagh said that she wanted to get art classes at the high school involved with the arts center. “The gallery space at the Carriage Barn Arts Center is a professional art gallery with large open spaces, with beautiful lighting,” she said. “Seeing the student work in this setting is extremely exciting. Our students do incredible artwork that is only enhanced when seen in a professional gallery space.”
Ms. McDonagh also said that submitting artwork to the gallery serves to showcase student projects to the whole town. “We’ve raised awareness to the student work and made a connection to the students, their families, the high school community and the Carriage Barn Arts Center,” she said. “This will be our third high school student art exhibit, we have created a meaningful partnership between the two New Canaan institutions.”
The gallery had its opening night on Feb. 28. Students, teachers and parents are invited to visit while the show is still going on throughout the first two weeks of March.
