Published: May 08, 2008 10:44 am            

Jeffersonville High School art, welding students show off talents in art show

Chris Byrd, a vocational welding student at Jeffersonville High School, walked up to his science teacher Wednesday and pulled him over to a piece of artwork.

“You’ve got to see this!” he told his teacher, James Cruse.

He stood alongside Cruse by the metal sculpture.

“Yeah!” Byrd said, grinning with his arms crossed and proudly shaking his head.

Byrd is one of the welding students who paired up with advanced art students to create pieces of art for the courtyard area as part of the school’s annual art show.

“I’m impressed,” Cruse said at the art show’s opening Tuesday afternoon. “I had no idea he had that in him.”

Dawn Struck, who teaches art, said she wanted her advanced art students to do something that could beautify the courtyard area, yet be weather-proof.

“I thought, what could withstand the weather and I thought metal,” she said.

So, she had her six students collaborate with welding students. Her art students created small versions of what they envisioned the pieces to look like. The welding students then talked about how they could make that possible.

“When I heard the welding students using art words like talking about things being aesthetically pleasing, I thought perfect,” Struck said, excitedly clapping her hands together.

Out of the more than 300 pieces of art, ranging from drawings, sculptures, clay works and more, Struck’s favorites are the metal pieces.

“Just when you take an artist and a person who can weld, it all really comes together,” she said.

Students, teachers, parents and others from the community filled the library and adjacent courtyard for the art show. A student composer played his own pieces on a keyboard as people walked around to look at the pieces.

“It’s really amazing the talent these young kids have,” said MaryJo Cavanaugh, who was one of the community members who came out for the show.

“I knew Jeff High had a lot of good artists, but I didn’t think that they were this good,” freshman Bethany Elsner said. “It’s surprising!”

For the student artists, they said they were happy to display their talents for all to see.

“It just feels so good,” senior Marah Casey said. “I feel so proud.”

“I like doing it, because it expresses a lot of feelings, like my artistic ability and other things people can’t see,” sophomore JoAnn Brown said.

Art teacher Angie Wolf has been to many art shows during her time at JHS. She said this year’s crowd was larger than ever before.

“The crowd was more than I expected,” she said, smiling as she looked around at the visitors. “It’s wonderful!”

The art show will remain up until Friday.

        

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