Student Masks Show Creative Diversity

I have always thought teen art has been ignored for too long, but now - thanks to Cheney Cowles Museum - teen artists are being put in a small but public spotlight.

Recently, 17 kids from Tom Pettoello and Bridgid Kardong’s Lewis and Clark High School art class had an opportunitly that few kids get. There were invited to tour the exhibition “Las Caras Demexio Pasado Y Presente (The Faces of Mexico: Past and Present), a very large collection of masks and artwork from Mexico showing at the museum through June 23.

They then went back to their classroom and made masks of their own out of plaster. Each student wrote descriptions about their work and what inspired it. When they were done, the masks were displayed in the museum’s gift shop for several weeks.

The masks struck a wide variety - from an alien to a sun god, from a Jamaican woman to a god of snakes. They ranged from realism to abstract. I went to talk to the students who made the masks, mostly because I wanted to meet the artists of this unique art project.

The kids were mostly shy but they were all very creative, I could tell that from the project they were working on when I visited. Each of them had a different reason for making their masks the way they did. They all said they enjoyed the project and some said they were glad teen art is being publicly recognized.

Unfortunately, the display has been taken down already, but I decided to write this article anyway because there is seldom an opportunity like this for teens. The museum hopes to have an exhibit of teen art in the store for every major exhibition that comes. You can bet I’ll be going to every one and hope other teens will as well.

If you would like more information on the next teen exhibit, call Jennifer Park at the Cheney Cowles Museum, 456-3931, ext. 611. If you’re a teen who’d like to know about more art opportunities in the community, please call me, Beth, the art freak, at 448-5901. And remember, there are not a lot of constant things in life, but one thing is for sure - art is never constant.