Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: This is the owlcast, the official podcast of ACS Athens.
This is the student edition. Listen to the exciting story of the american community schools of Athens.
Check out what drives all the members of our international community of learners as we create the education of the future.
Here's John Papadakis.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: There is no such thing as white background today. The Owlcast is all about art, the most interesting and creative and original art there is. The artists are 3rd, fourth, and fifth grade students who are now exploring the elements of art, and their imagination is as pure as the primary colors, and their creativity is still boundless. Sir Ken Robinson, a world renowned visionary on children's education, was fond of saying that creativity is as important in education as literacy. Art classes, especially in elementary school, have consistently proven that students need art as much as they need literacy, as they need friends, and as they need attention. The lack of art is detrimental to their learning process, and this has been documented by many scholars through the years. Ashley Flory is a cellular molecular biologist and lead researcher at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. In her paper titled “exploring the benefits of art in elementary education,” she writes: “if we do not take into consideration the benefits of incorporating art, we're only setting students up for failure. Allowing for multiple perspectives early in education helps promote understanding and acceptance of others, while also helping to create a desire to learn.”
And this is nowhere more visible than in a student art exhibition like the recent elementary art exhibition. Dualities of the world are so evident in the students’ work as they explore dark versus light, happy colors vs. not so happy. Today we attempt to capture this creativity, artistic insight, and spirit of the recent elementary arts exhibition that was held in the lobby area of our theater, which serves as the gallery for our community. Students with their classes visited the exhibit and we engaged into discussions with them as to what they see and how this creative process affects them on a personal level.
Talking about art on a podcast is not the most efficient, but through the children's eyes, hopefully you will get the idea. Listen to some of the most original and surprising point of views, but also from their art teachers, Farida ElGazzar, Kleoni Manousaki, and arts division chair Sophia Soseilos. A few parents and alums also offer their critique. Let's get colorful.
Speaker B: So, can someone describe to me what we're looking at? What is this exhibit?
[00:03:33] Speaker C: It's the 4th, 3rd, fourth, and fifth grade exhibition of selected artworks, and third grade has a painting collage which depicts different values. Like you see the animals. Most people, they have made an animal that they have used different values from the grayscale and then collaged the background with color. So there is a combination of monochromatic and polychromatic.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: What was the guidance? What was the guidance for them to work on this like this?
[00:04:07] Speaker C: To make a grayscale with paint from white to black and different shades in between, to draw an animal and use the different shades and then create a colorful background for the animal that they created. Then we have still life, that all fourth grade is showing. Still life where they viewed the objects that me and Miss Farida had set for them. And the idea is to understand the relationship between the different objects and the shades, that they come naturally, and that there is no such thing as a white background. And then we have fifth grade that got inspired by the work of Nikki de Sanfaus is a french american artist that use a lot of shapes and patterns and a lot of color, and a symmetrical balance, which means that the balance is accomplished by elements that are not symmetrical to each other.
So these were the guidelines.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: How long did they have to work on these?
[00:05:07] Speaker C: About a month or so.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: One month?
[00:05:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: And the different mediums, it was all pencil colors, watercolors. What are they?
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Well, there is a mix of media. In third grade, we have paint and paper. On fourth grade, we have color pencil and watercolor.
And fifth grade, the sculptures are made either out of clay or by these constructions that are made of wood, chicken wire, plaster, paper, and paint.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: So if I had to ask you what impressed you from this work, what would you say?
[00:05:46] Speaker C: How different they all are and that they created very unique compositions.
[00:05:52] Speaker D: And in addition, I want to say that it's very advanced for their age. Everything that I see here do still lives, even on older students. It's something very difficult because they literally need to observe. And for the students to get into this amazing state, that means that they did a lot of work before, like, with the exercises that they did. Because I know that you have been working with smaller studies for, like, a month, the whole month. So doing studies of the same object from different viewpoints again and again, manage the students to learn how to look, to observe.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: And can you describe us something that you saw? And you say, okay, this is something really remarkable.
[00:06:39] Speaker D: Wherever I see, I see beautiful ratios of objects, like, together, because this is what the still life is. What is the relation between one object and another? Now, the perspective, obviously, it's not based on the most sophisticated one point or two point perspective that they will learn in high school, but that's what makes it unique as well. This is how they see it. And they really try.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: You can see the progress, of course.
[00:07:05] Speaker D: And I see how they try to find ways to show everything. Like, they show the same thing from one point, and then they show the same thing from below. For example, here you can see how you see the whole room, the objects that they were placed. You see the easel, the apple, and now you see it from closer. Do you see it? You see the apple. You see it. But now you're seeing it from a different point of view. Something like this with the lemons, the line, the horizon line, the monochromatic, how they. This is very advanced. Very advanced. It's amazing work.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: And we're looking at the fourth grade.
[00:07:47] Speaker D: Fourth grade collection and the sculptures that Ms. Cleoni said. Ms. Manusaki, what do we see in the sculptures? They make a story, all of them. They create a story. So they have some kind of animals in the middle. I've seen a person, a deer, a dragon over there. There is something like a snake that's.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: In the middle of that table.
[00:08:16] Speaker D: And then all of those, they sort of protect the center one. I mean, even if you see that, I think, fourth or fifth grade, and there is a person, person kneeling inside.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: What is this? Is this like a room?
[00:08:30] Speaker D: Yeah. This is a person holds himself or herself within an enclosed space, which creates, like a room. And then you have all of those monstrous, beautiful, cute shaped animals. Some of them, they even have a tail. Some of them, they have ears.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: These are made of.
[00:08:52] Speaker D: No, no, this is a construction. You have the wood underneath. You have the chicken wire, the plaster of Paris on the top. And students managed to create all of these shapes, which are all varied. I mean, they look caved, but they do have differences.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: I like everything is brightly colored, which is very interesting.
[00:09:18] Speaker D: It's elementary.
And then they enjoy the color. You can see they do dots, they do big spots. Big spots.
The additions, I love, love the tails and the ears and the details that everything has. It's unique. Everyone is unique.
[00:09:34] Speaker E: Well, here it's artworks from fifth grade that were taught by Ms. Cleoni. We were just admiring the different sculptures, the different uses of materials, the way the students taking these raw materials and putting together their own expression, their ideas, with this metal, wood, paper, machete, and paint. And I love how they interpret them in these shapes. Each one individual with their style, their expression. There's a sense of freedom in there.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: So in the center, what do we see in the center?
[00:10:05] Speaker E: In the center, it's this amazing sculpture, clay sculpture.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: It's a table. Now it's a table, and we have something in the center, and then we have.
[00:10:12] Speaker E: Around the place on the table is different sculptures, each one celebrating different forms of art and paintings. On these sculptures and in the center, we have a snake made out of sculpture. There's a corner, and there is a reflection of the snake, which has been painted onto the background. But actually, it reminds us of a swan, which is very poetic and could be a metaphor. So it's a snake, but in the sculpture, you see the snake, and you see the shadow being looking as a swan, appearing as a swan.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: What impressed you from this exhibit up to now?
[00:10:50] Speaker E: First of all, I'm always surprised, happily surprised, about how the children bring out their creativity and their use of colors and their ideas.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: The fifth grade exhibit is very colorful.
[00:11:02] Speaker E: I think that they are very strong. Their strength is through their use of color, and they don't shy away from their uses of color.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: Was there a particular instruction how to use color?
[00:11:18] Speaker E: I think overall, when you teach them the basics about how to create new colors from the primary colors, that's a foundation given, and then they express their use of colors depending on the medium, if it's a paint or colored pencils, they can create different tones, different new values of color.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: And we see here the fifth grade sculpture section, because we were looking at the fourth grade.
[00:11:45] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: So what do you see? The difference between the two?
[00:11:49] Speaker E: I like the combination because they also are from different schools, different backgrounds. So the one is more uniformed, more structured, with the foundations of drawing, and then you have the other, which is the creativity of your imagination. And that input is very important at this age, especially so bringing those two worlds together. Imagination and what we observe and what we see as a form of art.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Anything about the third grade?
[00:12:16] Speaker E: I was admiring their textures, the different textures, because they've painted and then cut out pieces to create collage. So there are different combinations of paper cutouts with these painted textures against colored paper and cutouts, paper cutouts. So that combination as well, is beautiful as a composition, and it shows in their view of the natural world through the animals they've created and the space, the use of space, their composition.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Do you have a child here?
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Yes, I do.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Okay. What grade?
[00:12:51] Speaker C: In fifth grade.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Fifth grade. So we are in the fifth grade wing. So what do you see? What excites your eye?
[00:12:58] Speaker C: It's very colorful. That's the first thing I noticed when I came in. And color is used in different shapes and textures. We see the sculptures here, but also you can see them in the drawings and the collages. So I think that's something that stands out a lot. And what I've noticed is that for the same project, kids have a totally different perspective and way of expressing themselves. And it's quite interesting to see.
[00:13:28] Speaker F: We didn't learn about the different artistic periods and the different artists, and we weren't taught how to draw. And this is back in 1985.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: What were you taught at that period? What were you doing? Do you remember?
[00:13:42] Speaker F: Clay.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Clay.
[00:13:43] Speaker F: We were taught clay. Okay, you could do clay and plastilin, and you could do paper machete, and you had crayons, and that was about it. And I'm so impressed by what I see today. And every year when we come to the art show, it's so impressive what kids are doing today besides, and I'm not speaking about my kid, all the kids, it's amazing what they do, and it's beautiful and their use of color and their use of structure.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: So from what you see, what impresses your eye at this point, from whatever.
[00:14:11] Speaker F: You'Ve seen right now, I'm particularly enjoying the fourth grade exhibit. I am. I'm enjoying the fourth grade exhibit because I like the structure and I like the pieces that they're doing.
And I'm happy to see that some of the fifth graders chose to work with clay and to do those structures. I think the other structures are interesting, too.
They're all so imaginative, and everything is so imaginative and so bravo. It's a pleasure to see the fruits of their labors.
[00:14:51] Speaker G: We are looking at a girl who.
Her body is opposite. Her hair is from one side. It's different color from the other. It's another color, purple and pink. And she also has different eye colors. Her shirt is split into two halves. So basically, the art is like opposites. Like, each side is different. And I chose to do this because I have never done anything like that. And I wanted to try something new. And also in the background, you can see an apple tree, the sky, some plants, and a butterfly. The butterfly also has different colored wings, too.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: What technique did you use for this?
[00:15:43] Speaker G: So first I did a first, like, layer, and on top of that, I did a second layer because I want to change a few things and for it to pop out more.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: What does that painting make you feel?
[00:15:58] Speaker G: It makes me feel happy and unique, like I made something new.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: And you are what grade?
[00:16:06] Speaker G: I am fifth grade. So I made, like, a cat that has patterns on it. It's like cat and fox, and it has colorful patterns in it.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: So we're looking at a sculpture. Yeah, it's not a painting?
[00:16:22] Speaker G: No.
So how I made it, first I put plaster on the metal, like a.
[00:16:29] Speaker H: Few layers of that.
[00:16:30] Speaker G: Then I put newspaper with glue.
After that dried, I painted it three, four layers.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Of what color?
[00:16:39] Speaker G: Of a mixture of red, yellow, and. Yeah, a mixture of red and yellow.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Why did you pick red?
[00:16:47] Speaker G: Because I wanted to be a bit like a fox, but also like a cat.
So after with the newspaper, I also made ears, and I painted them also. And then I made some eyes from the inside and painted those. And then after, when all that dried, I painted the details, like the tail and. Yeah, all the stripes and all the details.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Why did you place it here with the rest of them?
[00:17:17] Speaker G: Because here, I think it's the place for all the sculptures. Like, here are all the sculptures because on the walls are the paintings.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: But does that fit in any kind of a pattern here?
[00:17:29] Speaker G: Yeah, I think so. Because here are the more pinky, purpley green ones, and here are, I think, the red ones and the orangey ones.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: And what is your grade?
[00:17:41] Speaker G: I'm fifth grade, so I'm in fifth grade, and my artwork is a girl background. She is represented by the colors in the world, and the swirls around her represent the bad things in life.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: How did you make the outline of the girl? It's a painting, right?
[00:18:05] Speaker G: Yes.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Okay, so how did you create the girl?
[00:18:09] Speaker G: I first sketched it out with pencil, and then over that, I put different colors.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: What kind of colors is it?
Is it water paint? What is it?
[00:18:21] Speaker G: It's acrylic.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Acrylic. Okay. And what else is on the canvas?
[00:18:26] Speaker G: I also have a sculpture that I made. It represents a girl and the badness around her.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Why did you choose this subject?
[00:18:37] Speaker G: Because I choose this subject because I wanted to show what the bad things in life are, and the painting behind her is basically the good things, and the sculpture is about the bad things.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: And what does that make you feel?
[00:18:55] Speaker G: It makes me feel like whatever you feel like, always know that you have support and happiness behind you, so you can always look forward to that. Thank you. You're welcome.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: You are listening to the owlcast, the official podcast of ACS Athens.
[00:19:43] Speaker H: I create a red, green, and black dragon. I did it because.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: How do we know this is a dragon?
[00:19:54] Speaker H: Because it has spikes and it has a long tail going up. I was going to add wings, but I ran out of time.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: So it's a wingless dragon?
[00:20:03] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: So it cannot fly.
[00:20:05] Speaker H: Yeah. And I got the idea when I wanted to create a godzilla like figure, but I couldn't because it didn't have legs. And so I created a dragon, who.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: Decided to put it in here in this particular set of other sculptures.
[00:20:26] Speaker H: I don't know.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Oh, you didn't place it here?
[00:20:29] Speaker H: No.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Do you think it fits?
[00:20:31] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Why?
[00:20:33] Speaker H: Because there are other red ones.
[00:20:36] Speaker G: There are?
[00:20:38] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: And what did that make you feel when you created it?
[00:20:43] Speaker H: I felt proud that I had built a dragon that looked like that.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: Would you use this in your room?
Yeah, probably on a bookcase or in the middle of the living room.
[00:20:58] Speaker H: On a bookcase.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: And you are what grade?
[00:21:01] Speaker H: Fifth grade. I made a deer.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Is it a painting? Is it a sculpture? What is it?
[00:21:08] Speaker H: A sculpture made out of?
[00:21:09] Speaker G: Clay.
[00:21:10] Speaker H: It's got big white antlers, a brown body, and a white nose with the front of its neck also painted white. It's a lot harder to make a deer than you think. You've got to perfectly scout, sculpt the nose, and you have to get the antlers just right, and then you have to paint it, which is weird, because deer can be different colors.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Why did you choose a deer?
[00:21:37] Speaker H: Because I really always like deer, and they're really.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Is it your favorite animal?
[00:21:42] Speaker G: It's up there, yeah.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: What's your first?
[00:21:44] Speaker G: I don't know. Meerkats.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Meerkats. Why didn't you do a meerkat?
[00:21:49] Speaker G: Because I like deer.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: So why did you make it that small? Deers are big.
[00:21:56] Speaker H: Because it takes a lot of clay to make something that big.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: You didn't have enough clay?
[00:22:01] Speaker H: I had some clay, but I like things that are small.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: So why is it in the middle of the table and surrounded by. What are they?
[00:22:09] Speaker G: Tanks?
[00:22:10] Speaker D: I don't know.
[00:22:11] Speaker H: They look like tanks.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Okay. So does it fit?
[00:22:14] Speaker H: Not really.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Not really?
[00:22:16] Speaker G: I didn't set it up, though.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Okay. But do you think that it makes some sense?
No, it doesn't make sense.
[00:22:23] Speaker H: Well, sort of, but.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: Okay. What did this make you feel when you were creating?
[00:22:28] Speaker H: It made me feel pretty good. I like creating it. It took a long time to make.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: How long?
[00:22:34] Speaker H: Five lessons.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Five?
[00:22:35] Speaker H: But I had to restart almost every time, and it took two lessons because one of my classmates broke the antlers one time, so I had to restart, and it took two more days to make the antlers.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: The antlers are white?
[00:22:51] Speaker H: Yes, white.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: Is this the color of antlers?
[00:22:54] Speaker H: Yes.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:55] Speaker H: And so it took a long time to make, but in the end, I got it correct, and I want to show my family and I want to show it to my family at the end when I get to take it.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Are you going to use this in your house?
[00:23:07] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Where are you going to place it?
[00:23:09] Speaker H: On one of my shelves.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: In your bookcase?
[00:23:12] Speaker H: On my room.
On a shelf.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Okay. What grade are you in?
[00:23:18] Speaker D: Fifth.
[00:23:19] Speaker G: So this is a sculpture of a unicorn. It has two sides, a darker pink and a lighter pink.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Why the difference?
[00:23:28] Speaker G: What?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Why is it different?
[00:23:30] Speaker G: Because this is, like, more. It's a lighter and, like, a brighter, nicer side, in my opinion.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: So there are two sides?
[00:23:38] Speaker G: Yeah. Darker then the blue stuff. I think it just matched the colors, and it would be kind of interesting to do something a little.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: So this is a sculpture?
[00:23:50] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:23:50] Speaker B: It's not a painting, but you had some painting done?
[00:23:53] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Okay. And do you think it fits in the rest of the artwork here?
[00:23:58] Speaker G: Yeah, it fits because all of them have. It's like a different animal, and they have different kind of ears and eyes.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Okay. And what did that make you feel when you made it?
[00:24:10] Speaker G: It made me feel, like, happy. And it's really.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: If you had to give a gift to someone, would you give that gift?
[00:24:18] Speaker G: Yeah.
Hi. I'm in fourth grade. What you're looking at right now, some of the people in fourth grade's art.
It's some still life.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: So this is a painting?
[00:24:35] Speaker G: Yeah, it's a painting.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: How did you paint? What kind of material did you use?
[00:24:39] Speaker G: We use watercolors, pencil and coloring pencil.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: So what are we looking at here? What is the topic?
[00:24:47] Speaker G: It's, like still life drawing. So what we did is the teacher put up some different objects, like, let's say, on top of the closet, and we had to draw it.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: So this is something that the teacher put somewhere. And you created the painting?
[00:25:05] Speaker G: Yeah. She'd put vases or, like, fake hands and sponges, and we'd had to draw it from our desk.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: So what did you enjoy most about this?
[00:25:17] Speaker G: I enjoyed sketching it out because when you're coloring it in, it's kind of, like, hard.
It was really fun.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Would you make this a gift to a friend, or do you want to keep it in your room?
[00:25:33] Speaker G: I mean, it could be a good gift for friend.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: And. What's the title? Still life.
[00:25:40] Speaker G: Still alive.
[00:25:41] Speaker H: Yeah, I guess we could do that's.
[00:25:59] Speaker G: I'm in fourth grade, and my art piece is a stilla.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: What does that mean?
[00:26:09] Speaker G: It's like what you see from your angle when you're sitting down and you're drawing something.
And I did the still life in the art room.
I drew the closet, and then there was, like, a still life on top of it. I drew the shelves and a bit of a pipe.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: What happened with the shelves. You didn't paint them?
[00:26:34] Speaker G: Oh, yeah. I didn't have time. Oh, time, yeah.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: So you can do it later?
[00:26:38] Speaker G: Yeah, I think.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Or do you like it like this?
[00:26:43] Speaker G: I think I like it like this.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Okay. Is there a title to this thing?
[00:26:47] Speaker G: No.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Are these the original colors or you made your own colors?
[00:26:53] Speaker G: They're the original colors.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: And what did you feel when you were painting this painting?
[00:26:59] Speaker G: I felt a bit, like, annoyed because sometimes it was really hard to get the perfect angles and lines.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: How do you call that when you try to paint angles? How do you call that?
[00:27:17] Speaker G: I don't know.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Perspective maybe.
[00:27:19] Speaker G: Yeah, perspective.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Okay. Thank you so much.
[00:27:22] Speaker G: Thank you. Bye. I'm in fourth grade, and I drew a shoe, an apple, a lemon, a teapot, and a box behind everything.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: Where did you see all these things?
[00:27:37] Speaker G: I saw it in my art class.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: So they had something on a desk and you had to draw?
[00:27:43] Speaker G: Yes.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: And why did you choose these colors? I see here you had more than one color, more than one shade of gray.
[00:27:50] Speaker G: Because I tried to blend in the colors, but it didn't go great. But it's okay.
I tried my best and I hope I could go better in art class.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: So why do we see here? Happy new year.
[00:28:08] Speaker G: Because there was a happy new year for Miss Farida. And I also drew it.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: So this is an actual thing that was on the wall. Right.
[00:28:19] Speaker G: And that over there is the bathroom.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: What did that painting make you feel when you drew it?
[00:28:28] Speaker G: I felt good.
It was very nice.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: What are you going to do with the painting after the exhibition is over?
[00:28:38] Speaker G: I'll take it home and I'll make a pile of my artwork and then I'll hang it up on my wall so I can remember how I did. Good, bad.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Do you actually paint when you have free time at home?
[00:28:54] Speaker G: Kind of.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: Okay. Still life or imaginary life.
Thank you.
[00:29:00] Speaker G: You're welcome.
[00:29:02] Speaker H: So you're looking at my project. I got inspired for the crazy colors of red, green, blue, white.
I got inspiration from all these colors with the portraits that Picasso did with those abstract things. I decided to make mine a little bit more abstract.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: Where did you see the Picasso piece?
[00:29:23] Speaker H: Oh, when I went to Abu Dhabi, I went to the Louvre museum and there were some Picasso paintings and I saw them.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: What impressed you by the paintings that you saw?
[00:29:39] Speaker H: There was only, like, three. And my favorite one was where there was, like, one eye and then the other eye was flipped over and, like, lower. So it was pretty abstract. I like the colors, so I took inspiration from that.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: So what about the colors? What impressed you and you use these colors?
[00:29:57] Speaker H: I use these colors because these are some of my favorite colors, especially blue and green. They're my two favorite colors.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: So this is a sculpture?
[00:30:05] Speaker H: Yeah, it's a sculpture.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: How did you create this sculpture? What kind of material do you use?
[00:30:09] Speaker H: We used plaster and we wet plaster. We put it on, and then we glued newspaper on it, and then we started painting the newspapers.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: So I see newspaper in the back of the color. Right. Is there a title to this thing?
[00:30:25] Speaker H: I'm not sure. I don't think.
What do you mean by title?
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Is there a title to your piece?
[00:30:31] Speaker H: You mean what I call it?
[00:30:33] Speaker B: How do you call this?
[00:30:34] Speaker H: The creations of Da Vinci.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: That's a pretty good name. Thank you.
[00:30:42] Speaker G: Thank you.
So I made this drawing. Like, there's a closet and it's still, like, on top of it. And I drew what's around it, like those shelves and that green thing. Like the shelves, the other shelves, and the whiteboard and all those windows.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: So what do we have underneath the window?
[00:31:08] Speaker G: The green shelves with all the stuff.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: And this is the stuff on the drawer?
Yeah. What about the shelves that don't have any color?
[00:31:19] Speaker G: These ones?
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
You didn't have time to finish?
[00:31:25] Speaker G: Yeah, I didn't have time to put all the stuff in them.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: So what made you feel making this piece?
How did you feel when you were making it?
[00:31:37] Speaker G: I felt kind of that feeling when you're enjoying something.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: And what are you going to do with the painting after the exhibition?
[00:31:50] Speaker G: I'm probably going to keep it and probably frame it. I don't know.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: What grade are you in?
[00:31:57] Speaker G: Fourth grade.
I'm in grade five.
So I really got inspiration from Peter Kahlo. She's an artist from Mexico. And when I had looked up her paintings after, she had used many colors and a lot of shapes, like circles and lines, and, like, I really wanted to try to use unique colors. So I just put as much as I could there and color it all, not to see any white.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: So this is a sculpture?
[00:32:30] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: It's not a painting.
[00:32:31] Speaker G: It's not a painting.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: But you painted over?
[00:32:33] Speaker G: Yes.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: And what do we see here? What is it that we see?
[00:32:37] Speaker G: I'm not sure what to call it yet, but I would call it, I think I was trying to make a luggage that had many colors that you haven't seen before.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Why a luggage?
[00:32:50] Speaker G: Because it was the only thing I could think of at the top of my mind.
I'm in fourth grade, and this is.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: A painting or a sculpture?
[00:32:59] Speaker G: A painting.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: So what did you draw here?
[00:33:02] Speaker G: I drew the other side of the classroom, because I thought that it wouldn't be good to only draw one thing. I thought I could draw the whole classroom.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Why did you choose these colors?
[00:33:16] Speaker G: I chose these colors based on the classroom.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: So you have, what, the green seats?
[00:33:23] Speaker G: No. What are these green cubbies?
[00:33:26] Speaker B: That's cubbies. Okay.
[00:33:27] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: And the big brown thing.
[00:33:29] Speaker G: And that is a closet.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:33:33] Speaker G: And up there, up from the closet, they had a pot, and.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Oh, this is not a cat.
[00:33:42] Speaker G: No, it's a pot.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:33:46] Speaker G: So they put it up there, like, as a sculpt. That was what we had to draw up there.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: Okay. And how did you feel when you were drawing this?
[00:33:58] Speaker G: I felt very tired after it.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: How long did it take you?
[00:34:02] Speaker G: Probably, like, two lessons.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: Two lessons to do this?
[00:34:06] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Looks very good, though.
[00:34:08] Speaker G: Thank you.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:34:10] Speaker G: Okay, so I'm in fourth grade, and I made this beautiful artwork. And so this is inspired by the classroom. And so Ms. Farida, my teacher, my art teacher, told us so she'll have three sections, three sections for us to paint. So I picked this section because it was the most hardest for me.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: Why did you pick the hardest?
[00:34:40] Speaker G: Because I wanted to challenge myself.
When I grow up, I can probably be an artist. Or.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: What did you find challenging about this piece?
[00:34:55] Speaker G: The thing I found challenging was, like, this black area. I was trying to do the side of the closet, which was black, and it didn't turn out that well.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: So you're trying to paint perspective?
[00:35:08] Speaker G: Yes.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: You understand perspective?
[00:35:11] Speaker G: Kind of.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: So what about the rest of the three colors that you have here?
[00:35:16] Speaker G: So I wanted to say that these flowers right here, I just put them in my own imagination, and I just put them there. And to be honest, the painting gives more color.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: Now, how about the other side here?
[00:35:36] Speaker G: The other side. One of my friends inspired me.
They added, like, shadows with these colors. So I just did it, and it turned out more nicer.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: What is the thing that strikes you most about this painting?
[00:35:53] Speaker G: The thing that attracts me the most is this area, like, right here.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: How about the hand?
[00:36:01] Speaker G: The hand? Yeah, the hand was cutting out, and it was, like, hanging from the closet.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: That is interesting. Thank you very much.
[00:36:12] Speaker G: No problem.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: You are listening to the owlcast, the official podcast of ACS Athens. Make sure you subscribe to the owlcast on Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Apple podcasts. This has been a production of the ACS Athens media studio.
