Gibraltar High School Art Exhibit to Be Held at Base Camp

“Crazy Good,” 5″x22″ mixed media, by Holly Free.

Gibraltar High School art instructor, Sally Bahrke, couldn’t have asked for a more perfect field trip for her 24 students than their own exhibition to be held at Base Camp Coffee Bar, 10904 Highway 42 (below Ecology Sports) in Sister Bay, from April 18 through May 4. The reception for the show, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Friday, April 18 from 6 – 8 pm.

“Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been emphasizing to the students the need to think and act and produce like an artist,” Bahrke said. “I think preparing for the show has made them feel more professional.”

“Thom Yorke,” 16″x20″ acrylic paint on canvasboard, by Hannah Cole.

Each student will display a digital black-and-white self-portrait and another work of their choosing.

The artwork, some of which will be for sale, was completed during the school’s first-year Art I: Elements of Art. The art foundations course, attended primarily by freshmen, explores the usage of different media while demonstrating the basic elements that comprise a work.

The digital photos were produced during a unit on “value.” Ranging in size from 3” x 5” to 8.5” x 11”, students utilized the “Picassa” computer program to do basic photo imaging prior to printing on a desktop printer.

“Bloom,” 14″x11″ acrylic paint on stretched canvas, by Molly Grenchik.

These images, as well as those of works in other media, have the opportunity to be grouped online in individual student portfolios with “Flicker.”

Other works in the show include parodies of the painting “American Gothic” by Grant Wood; colored marker tessellations (patterns) from a “shape” unit; nature-inspired prints; acrylic paintings in the color-blending style of Georgia O’Keefe; and mixed media “scribble” portraits from a unit on “line.” The latter encourages a face to emerge from crayoned chaos.

“I have the students find a face in their scribbles,” Bahrke says. “They then draw it out and paint accordingly. The result is a comic, distorted face with brightly-colored features – it’s hysterical, really.”

Bahrke was invited to show the student work at Base Camp by barista Ann Lynaugh, who was given the nod from owners Joel and Alicia Kersebet. All three share Bahrke’s view that young artists need encouragement from the community to feel their efforts are of value.

“The arts don’t get the attention that sport or academic excellence do,” Lynaugh says. “A lot of kids that aren’t into sports are into the arts. It’s important that they are acknowledged. It’s a chance for them to show off what they’re good at and what they enjoy.”