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www.kansascity.com | 12/04/2007 | Deaf students find expression in art
To Alfred Wigley, graphic design isn’t just a class. It’s his future.
Wigley’s artwork was just accepted into the 11th Annual Student High School Visual Arts Competition. His entry, called “Super Player,” is an image of himself holding melting basketballs against a skyscraper backdrop.
He used several computer programs to create the piece, which melds his passion for basketball with his love of graphic design.
“I want to become a graphic designer,” says Wigley, 17. “I’m going to keep going in that direction and see what happens.”
Wigley, who attends the Kansas School for the Deaf, was one of four students from his school chosen to show their art in the competition. There were about 400 entries from the Kansas City area, but only 95 were selected for the competition show, which starts Thursday at the Irene B. French Community Center Art Gallery in Merriam and continues through Dec. 29.
This is the first year KSD students have entered the competition. Fifty-five high school students attend KSD; of those, about 14 are in art class.
KSD Students Juana Bautista, 18, Johanna Laughrey, 16, and Matrix Young, 17, were also picked for the show.
Bautista’s piece, called “Spring,” is a marigold-yellow, hand-pinched clay vessel painted with cream-colored flowers.
Laughrey’s hand-coiled clay vessel, “Dragon,” is a neon green teapot with a black, snarling dragon on the side.
Young’s entry – a graphic design piece called “Twins Connection” – is composed of two images of himself. Young, who doesn’t have a twin, seems to stare straight into his own eyes in the piece.
Young recently left KSD to move back to New Orleans. His art teacher, Takako Kerns, said he had come to Kansas after Hurricane Katrina and his family recently decided to return.
“I really miss him,” Kerns says.
She says that in “Twins Connection,” Young used a backdrop of chains to symbolize the tight bond twins form, and the color red to symbolize the blood they share.
Kerns says she chose her students’ work for entry into the competition based on their own individual strengths as artists.
Bautista, Kerns says, has a knack for three-dimensional art like sculptures and vessels. She says Wigley is “really very good” at melding his imagination with computer animation, and Laughrey has a gift for freehand drawing.
“I really enjoy doing art with my hands,” Laughrey says.
Laughrey is especially interested in drawing dragons. In the KSD art room where Kerns holds class, there’s a giant canvas in the corner with an intricate, green-and-black dragon that Laughrey drew and painted. Next to that, there’s another piece of Laughrey’s work: a large piece of black paper with neon paper cutouts of hands signing each letter in “Deaf Cultural Center.”
Laughrey says she’ll give the piece to the center when it’s done.
Sign language is an everyday part of the students’ lives. But it wasn’t always that way for Bautista, who moved to the United States from Mexico two years ago.
Bautista says she never learned sign language growing up, so she communicated with hand gestures and facial expressions. She was never exposed to art, either.
But when she started attending KSD, she started to learn sign language. Now she can communicate in ways she never could before.
“I really enjoy it,” Bautista says. “It’s very inspiring to be able to do it.”
To see more of the students’ artwork, attend the KSD High School art show December 17-19 in the KSD Roberts Building.
To Alfred Wigley, graphic design isn’t just a class. It’s his future.
Wigley’s artwork was just accepted into the 11th Annual Student High School Visual Arts Competition. His entry, called “Super Player,” is an image of himself holding melting basketballs against a skyscraper backdrop.
He used several computer programs to create the piece, which melds his passion for basketball with his love of graphic design.
“I want to become a graphic designer,” says Wigley, 17. “I’m going to keep going in that direction and see what happens.”
Wigley, who attends the Kansas School for the Deaf, was one of four students from his school chosen to show their art in the competition. There were about 400 entries from the Kansas City area, but only 95 were selected for the competition show, which starts Thursday at the Irene B. French Community Center Art Gallery in Merriam and continues through Dec. 29.
This is the first year KSD students have entered the competition. Fifty-five high school students attend KSD; of those, about 14 are in art class.
KSD Students Juana Bautista, 18, Johanna Laughrey, 16, and Matrix Young, 17, were also picked for the show.
Bautista’s piece, called “Spring,” is a marigold-yellow, hand-pinched clay vessel painted with cream-colored flowers.
Laughrey’s hand-coiled clay vessel, “Dragon,” is a neon green teapot with a black, snarling dragon on the side.
Young’s entry – a graphic design piece called “Twins Connection” – is composed of two images of himself. Young, who doesn’t have a twin, seems to stare straight into his own eyes in the piece.
Young recently left KSD to move back to New Orleans. His art teacher, Takako Kerns, said he had come to Kansas after Hurricane Katrina and his family recently decided to return.
“I really miss him,” Kerns says.
She says that in “Twins Connection,” Young used a backdrop of chains to symbolize the tight bond twins form, and the color red to symbolize the blood they share.
Kerns says she chose her students’ work for entry into the competition based on their own individual strengths as artists.
Bautista, Kerns says, has a knack for three-dimensional art like sculptures and vessels. She says Wigley is “really very good” at melding his imagination with computer animation, and Laughrey has a gift for freehand drawing.
“I really enjoy doing art with my hands,” Laughrey says.
Laughrey is especially interested in drawing dragons. In the KSD art room where Kerns holds class, there’s a giant canvas in the corner with an intricate, green-and-black dragon that Laughrey drew and painted. Next to that, there’s another piece of Laughrey’s work: a large piece of black paper with neon paper cutouts of hands signing each letter in “Deaf Cultural Center.”
Laughrey says she’ll give the piece to the center when it’s done.
Sign language is an everyday part of the students’ lives. But it wasn’t always that way for Bautista, who moved to the United States from Mexico two years ago.
Bautista says she never learned sign language growing up, so she communicated with hand gestures and facial expressions. She was never exposed to art, either.
But when she started attending KSD, she started to learn sign language. Now she can communicate in ways she never could before.
“I really enjoy it,” Bautista says. “It’s very inspiring to be able to do it.”
To see more of the students’ artwork, attend the KSD High School art show December 17-19 in the KSD Roberts Building.
