Wednesday, April 15, 2015
B1
Student Ag-art-culture
A r t i s t i c S t a t e m e n t
We make art because it is a way of expressing ideas and ways of life, and everyone can talk to each other with art; there is no language.
The theme for our art project is different activities people can do to benefit the environment. Techniques we used to create our art project are
to brainstorm ideas and collaborate as well as finding different ways we can all contribute to putting our different kind of
art together on linocut blocks. Steps we made as a group to make this possible in our project was talking, expressing
ideas and coming up with brainstorms. We sketched fruit pears doing environmentally friendly activities. We trans-
ferred our sketches onto linocut blocks, and then carved the sketches out using gouges. After we have finished
that, we inked the blocks that have been carved using brayers. When we finished with that, we printed it using
the print press. Different kinds of art we’ve done in the past are graffiti, musical experience, oil painting,
water color painting, architectural sketching, paint with oil pastels, graphic animating, wood carving,
and finger painting. We feel this project is different from previous art we’ve made in the past because
most of us have never worked with this kind of carving tool, and it is a new experience for us.
— Tj, James, Preston, Seth of Klahre House
Concern for community
grows from two different, yet
connected, creative projects
Photos and article by Kirby Neumann-Rea
News editor
“We’re learning a bunch of cool stuff about art and
I’m also happy we helped our community.”
That’s what Carlos Najera said about the agricultural
mural project he and 25 fellow sixth-graders are working
on in the waiting room at the new FISH food bank.
Located across town, but connected, is another student
art expression rooted in the county’s orchards, on display
at Hood River Library. High schoolers from Klahre House
alternative school created linocut prints that allowed
them to explore their own artistic possibilities while in-
terpreting the value of agriculture. Klahre House is a
program of The Next Door, Inc., and serves youths in fos-
ter care or who are at-risk.
In the Klahre House and HRMS efforts, students looked
at the role of food that is grown in this county and its
role in sustaining community. They called it “Present
Day WPA: Exploring Our Agricultural Heritage through
Art.” Artist in residence Kelsey Mosley oversaw the pro-
ject along with staff member Maya Trook. It was funded
through Arts in Education in the Gorge and Hood River
Cultural Trust. A year ago, Mosley also worked with stu-
dents on a series of portraits and descriptions of cultural
and historic heroes of the Columbia River Gorge.
See ARTIST, Page B12
TEACHER JENNIFER WILSON, above, looks on as stu-
dents add glass beads around figures on the FISH food
bank mural. At left, Klahre House students talk with visitors
at the April 8 art opening at Hood River Library. In the food
bank mural, farmers and other food providers are depicted
in a variety of ways. Inset: one of hundreds of ceramic fish
acknowledging FISH building campaign donors, in the
mural designed by Alison Bell Fox.
WHERE TO SEE THE ART
Klahre House exhibit re-
mains on view during regular li-
brary hours through April, in the
ground-floor Jeanne Marie
Gaulke meeting room.
The Hood River Middle
School mural will be a perma-
nent part of the new FISH food
bank, now under construction
on Tucker Road next to Our Re-
deemer Lutheran Church (see
related story).