Smith-Cotton High School art students will open the annual student show Thursday with approximately 1,500 pieces featuring artwork in seven different mediums.
The exhibit being shown in the upper gymnasium will be hosted through Friday.
On Wednesday, as students and teachers alike worked to hang and display the artwork, three seniors in art teacher Josh Heimsoth’s art class spoke with the Democrat.
Blake Grupe, who enjoys creating pottery, said he only began taking art classes at the end of last year.
“I switched out of cooking class, and I was looking for a class, and saw I had a friend in there (art class) so I joined it,” he said. “I ended up liking it. This is my first full year.”
Grupe has a table filled with pottery at the show and some of it was created with a special glazing technique called bubble glazing.
“You glaze it with a base color, like a white or something light,” he said. “Then you actually mix a little bit of like Dawn dish soap in black glaze, and you literally put it in a cup and blow bubbles into it. The bubbles spew out and that is where you get all that marbled look to it.”
Grupe said he plans to attend Arkansas State University next year and major in business.
Last year Hailey Wasser tried her hand at pottery and this year she decided to take painting. She was pleased with the results.
“I think my favorite thing about it, is Heimsoth pretty much lets us paint what we want to paint for the most part,” she said. “It’s a good way to express yourself, and kind of have fun at the same time. It’s not your typical art class, it’s more relaxed.”
She said through the year the class works on different types of paintings.
“Throughout the year we have different stipulations that we have to do,” Wasser said. “We do silhouettes, we do reflections, we do things like that and every one is a little bit different. Probably my favorite painting is one of little sister this year.
“We have the opportunity to work with acrylic, spray paint and watercolor and creative painting,” she added. “Which is really cool because if you don’t like one (technique), you’ll find one you do like.”
Wasser’s painting of her sister, 1-year-old Aspen Weir, is included in the student art show. Wasser said next year she plans to enroll in the nursing program at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
Baxter Mays, who will attend Allen County Community College in Kansas to play baseball next year, said he began taking art because his friends were in the class. He enjoys using the pottery wheel to create his work.
“I was in a drawing class when I started out and that was not really my thing,” he noted. “I got into pottery and I started with hand building, but really once I got on the wheel I started liking it the most.”
Mays said what he enjoys most about working with pottery is the variety of glazes.
“That’s the fun, there’s so many different glazes, and combinations,” he added. “You can mix them together, and you don’t know what you’re going to get really until it comes out of the kiln.”
Some of Mays’ pots feature a bright orange glaze, not easy to achieve. All the pieces are one-of-a-kind. Mays added that the heat of the kiln causes the intensity of glazes to change and although they are supposed to be the same color they often evolve in hue.
“So it’s really random. You may never get that same color again.”
S-C Art Teacher Michael Shukers said six judges from outside the school will judge the work Wednesday evening. The show will open Thursday morning. Student artwork this year takes in seven categories — black-and-white drawing, color drawing, painting, mixed media, digital art, sculpture and ceramics.
The SCHS Student Art Show will be on exhibit from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday in the upper floor of the gymnasium.
Pottery by S-C Senior Baxter Mays sets on a display table Wednesday afternoon. Art students will show a variety of work, including sculpture and ceramics, both Thursday and Friday. Many of the pieces are for sale.
