MM_110917

22 | November 9, 2017 | The Mokena Messenger life & arts
mokenamessenger.com
Show and tell: Young artists display work at VVAC
Laurie Fanelli
Freelance Reporter
Inspiration and creativity
pulsed throughout the Vogt
Visual Arts Center in Tinley
Park on the afternoon
of Saturday, Nov. 4, as local
students from Andrew,
Lincoln-Way East, Lincoln-
Way West and Lincoln-Way
Central high schools, along
with family and friends, attended
the ninth-annual
High School Fine Art Exhibit
Reception.
Photography, pen and pencil,
graphic design, etching
and many more media highlighted
the diverse talents of
these aspiring artists.
“This year, we have a real
mix of inspirations and a
good showing from all the
schools,” Gallery Director
Julie Dekker said. “There
are more digital images than
usual this year, a lot of photography
and a little less
acrylic painting — which
is always close to my heart
— and there’s also a lot of
mixed medium and a lot of
illustration.”
Illustrator Collin Baker,
a student at Lincoln-Way
West, has a striking symmetrical
design hanging in
the show.
“This is really different
from what I usually
do, which is make comic
books,” he said. “We were
told to make a design with
kind of a blob-morphous
shape, and I decided to make
it go into one point.”
Lincoln-Way Central artist
Kylie Kose also stepped
outside of her box and
dove into abstract art with
her featured piece.
“Normally, I like to draw
people a lot, but when I took
design and illustration, which
is all about fonts, I wanted
to do things that I normally
wouldn’t do and that I’m usually
not good at,” she said.
“I wanted to try the hardest
thing I could and make it
look the best it could be.”
Art is a wonderful way to
connect with the world without
saying a word, yet Lincoln-Way
East junior Nicole
Zralka’s colorful marker
piece clearly spoke of beauty
and rebirth.
“It just kind of came to
me,” she said of her image of
a woman donning a crown of
leaves adorned with a perfect
egg. “I draw a lot of people. I
like that they’re all the same,
but they’re all different.”
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Family and friends come out to the Vogt Visual Arts Center
to see the talented young artists of the High School Art
Exhibit.
Photography is typically
a popular art form at the
VVAC’s high school show,
and 2017 was no different,
with landscapes, portraits,
nature and more serving as
inspiration for the next generation
of photographers.
Andrew High School junior
Sierra Murray has been interested
in taking pictures
since she received her first
camera in eighth grade, and
she is currently studying
techniques to capture images
on black-and-white film.
“For this project, we were
focusing on lights and shadows,
so I went around and
found stuff that I thought
would have a cool shadow,”
Murray said, describing her
piece. “I liked how the bike’s
shadow was appearing on
the ground, so I played
around with the angles.”
As these young artist
move forward with their
lives toward graduation, college
and careers, Dekker encouraged
them to keep creativity
close to their hearts.
“I know that the rest of
their lives can interfere with
their art as they enter their
careers,” she said. “At that
time, art often gets put on
the back burner. But just
because it’s been put on the
back burner — which has
happened to all of us — it
doesn’t mean you’re done.
It never means you’re done.
Art never leaves you, and
you will come back to it and
find places in your life to use
it. Don’t give it up.”
Following the high school
exhibit — which can be seen
at the Vogt Visual Arts Center,
located at 17420 S. 67th
Court through Nov. 25 — a
display of trains and miniatures
will run from Dec.
1-Jan. 20. The gallery’s next
open house is scheduled for
Dec. 2 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
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Lincoln-Way Central artist Kylie Kosek demonstrates how additional panels can be added
to her graphic piece Saturday, Nov. 4, at Vogt Visual Arts Center in Tinley Park.
Photos by Laurie Fanelli/22nd century media