Together . . . - Poly Prep Country Day School

Connecting through Creativity
Form III Student’s Artwork Resonates as Powerful, Empathic
Last year in Neddi Heller’s Grade 8 art class, student
Paige Anderson was not awash in feelings of artistic
inspiration—she was a little distressed by the task
that lay ahead of her. Heller’s students were assigned
to create art inspired by Hurricane Katrina.
“I had a friend in my English class who was here
because she had to leave her home in New Orleans,”
Anderson said. “It was hard to imagine the suffering
those people went through, and I did not want to ask
my friend about it—I didn’t want to make her think
about it. I think I was able to express how sad I felt
for them, though.”
Out of that sadness Paige created a collage titled
“Hurricane Katrina” that nearly a year later is still
receiving accolades for its strong composition, as
well as its resonance with audiences as a powerfully
empathic response to tragedy.
In the aftermath of Katrina, Heller felt some
distress, as well, as she struggled with how to help
students cope with their feelings about the disaster,
which occurred only days after the beginning of the
school year.
“When Katrina happened, I wanted to help the
kids find a way to express how they felt about what
was going on,” Heller said. “I made the connection
with collage first because they were being bombarded
with images, and I wanted to help them make sense
of what they were seeing.”
Heller made a second connection to the
experience for her students by teaching the work of
prolific artist Romare Bearden, who was noted for
his richly textured collages. In all media he worked
in, Bearden commented on and celebrated various
aspects of the African-American experience.
“Bearden loved jazz music, and it figured heavily
in some of his work. New Orleans represented
jazz for our country—that element of our American
heritage is deeply rooted there,” Heller said. “I
wanted students to know the greatness of New
Orleans and thought that looking at Bearden’s work
could help them understand that and help them make
their own connections to the event and to that part of
the country.”
Heller’s students produced Katrina-inspired
collages that varied as broadly in their scope as they
did in their visual presentation.
“Some students spoke out against the
government with their art, while other pieces were
more Matisse-like,” Heller recalled. “Overall, the
work was strong, but Paige’s collage really stood out.”
Anderson employed very simple elements to
symbolize loss and displacement in her awardwinning
piece. A home floating in water, a cat, and
an uprooted tree served as important components
of the design, which has evoked powerful emotional
responses in many who have viewed it. She worked
closely with Heller to hone the paper-tearing
techniques used to create collage, and together the
two explored strategies for expressing certain ideas
through color.
Anderson was first honored with a Gold Key
award by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.
She was one of more than 200 New York–area teens
recognized as emerging artists by the Scholastic Art
& Writing Awards, sponsored by the Alliance. As
part of this, she was acknowledged at a ceremony
on April 6, 2006, at the Brooklyn Museum, and the
piece was displayed there throughout the month.
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