Mural adorns school with works of masters

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By ALISON KEMP

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

AUSTINTOWN — To see the art of Marc Chagall, Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh in one city, most people would probably suggest a trip to New York or Paris. But the works by all of these artists and more can be seen in a hallway in Austintown Fitch High School.

The international art is accompanied by paintings from American artists, including Norman Rockwell's "Lincoln the Railsplitter" and Winslow Homer's "Snap the Whip," (both of which are housed at The Butler Institute of American Art.).

The paintings on the Fitch walls flow together in a mural designed by a student teacher and painted by art students.

Painting on a wall gave the students an opportunity to paint on a surface they are not used to painting on, said Kathryn Bernard, the student teacher from Canfield who created the project and a recent graduate from Youngstown State University.

"It was a different project. I liked that it was a different experience," said Katie Hickman, a senior.

Bernard created the project for Patty Prentiss' Art 2 class, but students from Karen Weinberg's Art 3 and Art 4 classes and Jim Sulik's Art 2 class also worked on the mural.

Paintings were selected based on their familiarity or because the work or the artist was meaningful to art, Prentiss said.

"We picked pieces we thought people would recognize and ones we thought would be expected," Prentiss said. "Mona Lisa" was one of the expected, as was work by van Gogh.

She said all the time periods from Renaissance to Impressionism to Modern Art and everything in between are represented.

For three to four weeks, the students worked on the mural and had to make changes to the paintings as they went, intertwining, extending and reducing them as needed.

That's why the red sky in Edvard Munch's "Scream" is longer than in the original, so it can blend into the fire alarm on the wall; and why the leaves of the flower in Georgia O'Keefe's "Jack in the Pulpit II" aren't contained to its rectangular panel and spread onto the base of the Rockwell, onto van Gogh's chair and onto the replica of Chagall's "Self Portrait with Seven Fingers."

The hand of God from Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" rises from the grass in "Snap the Whip," which blends into a scene of water lilies from Monet's garden, overlapping Grant Wood's "American Gothic."

Purpose of site

The mural was done at the entrance to the art wing for a purpose.

"We chose the site because we are in the forgotten part of the school. It's nice to get something out like this and be more visible," Prentiss said. "[Now,] there's not a question in anyone's mind about where the art department is."

Senior Julia Chepke said it is "cool to have our work in the school, to leave something."

Weinberg, the art teacher, said faculty members expressed concern about the mural before it was finished. They were afraid it would be elementary.

But then when they saw the finished project, "they were amazed at the quality of the work," Weinberg said.

Bernard, Prentiss and Weinberg did not interfere with the students' interpretations of the works. Weinberg said the students were making the judgments about mixing colors and testing them for accuracy.

"People think you just sit down and make a piece of art. You're constantly making decisions as you make a piece of art," Weinberg said.

akemp@vindy.com

Sunday, June 3, 2007