Homestead’s Gallery Night, scheduled for May 15 at 6 p.m., will highlight students’ creativity with displaying their best pieces of art. A closer look at student art often reveals the creative and personal factors the influence each student’s final submissions.
Gallery Night, occurring annually in May, takes place on Homestead grounds in I Wing 1 as an event that will give merit to student artwork that otherwise might go unnoticed.
Mia Lind, sophomore, shaped her definitive decisions for Gallery Night through her desire to include a piece that reflects her lively personality.
“I did consider a still life as one of my other options, but I just thought that it didn’t have as much meaning as the others that I picked, and I really like using color in all of my pieces of art, and that just doesn’t have color, and I didn’t find it interesting. I think still life is kind of boring, so I chose an oil pastel piece and a portrait,” Lind said.
Lind believes that creating connections between her and the audience is the motivator for personal persistence, like with her drawing of her younger self on a carousel.
“I like the meaning behind [my artwork] because it’s such a childhood memory. Like everyone goes on a carousel at one point,” Lind said.
On the other hand, Michael Velaz, junior, hopes that his artwork will be interpreted differently by different audience member.
“I really hope it’s the quality, ‘cause I worked on it for so long, and I hope [the audience] understand[s] all the details,” Velaz said.
Valuing detail and patience, Velaz decided to submit work that he worked on for long periods of time that feels connected to significant events throughout his life.
“[Drawings] are the ones I worked on for three weeks or almost a month for my mom’s and my auntie’s birthdays, and I chose [them] because I really liked the way they came out first,” Velaz said.
One of the co-directors of Gallery Night, Gina Ruchalski, Homestead’s ceramics teacher, believes that her students’ submissions more often than not tell untold stories.
“I think that a lot of times the artwork reflects [students’ passions and interests] in some ways, whether it’s self-portraits or dealing with issues that might be more connected with identity,” Ruchalski said.
Ruchalski notes that untold stories become a driving force for students as she supports them in deciding which artwork to submit for this event.
“I’m looking for that spark, something that makes the piece of artwork personalized to that student’s perspective or experience, whether that might be a really unique way that they handle the material or explore the material,” Ruchalski said.
Her guidance emphasizes that ultimately, meaningful artwork stems from the artist’s individual experience.
“I prefer making pieces that have a connection to me,” Lind said.
