Art all around

Students at the Moab Charter School will be sharing their artwork at three gallery showings in November.

Moonflower Market, Museum of Moab and the Big Horn Gallery at Dead Horse Point State Park will be displaying a variety of work. Each display is unique.

The artwork at Moonflower Market is inspired by artist Alexander Calder, a sculptor who is known for creating mobiles. The art projects gave an opportunity for the first and second grade students to work with shapes to create their own art.

“They are unique, and individual, even though they were studying about one favorite artist,” said Catherine Moore, Moab Charter School’s art teacher. “Each was unique and had a lot of personal character.”

Moore said that she encouraged them to be inspired by Calder.

“I was impressed with how their individual interpretations came through,” she said.

Moore has been working with the children at Moab Charter School for five years. She began working at the school when her son Brendon, who is now in fourth grade, was a kindergartner.

“This age group is very loving and willing to try whatever I ask them to do with their artwork,” Moore said. “And they’re lots of fun.”

She has both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art.

This year is the first year her students have had a showing at the Museum of Moab. The children’s artwork, which focused on the ice age, was featured in the last Moab Art Walk of the season on Saturday, Nov. 9.

The art project became a school-wide project.

“All the teachers talked about Snowmass and the huge find there,” Moore said.

Five thousand fossils were discovered in an emptied reservoir near Snowmass, Colo., in 2010. The finding is considered one of the most significant fossil discoveries made in Colorado. The find included several mastodons and mammoths.

“We read books about the ice age and mammoths,” Moore said.

When Moore told the students that their artwork would be shown at the museum, a few began to fret and worry.

“It made them very nervous and frustrated with their artwork,” Moore said of the third grade students. “But then the younger grades were very excited.”

She hopes that parents will take their children to the museum to see their artwork.

All the Moab Charter School students, from kindergarten through sixth grade, will have their artwork displayed at the Big Horn Gallery at Dead Horse Point State Park.

“All artwork is based on nature of this area,” Moore said.

The students did a postcard series. Each class had a different assignment: landscape, birds, plants, and animals and wildflowers.

Moore said that the children go on several field trips in the area, such as Moonflower Canyon, or ranger led trips at Dead Horse Point State Park. As part of this art project, the students have been asked to use the knowledge they’ve learned about landscapes, plants and animals.

“I had a friend who was helping me hanging it,” Moore said. “It is really cute.”

She said the most of the show are postcard-sized artwork, but it also includes a fall leaf series the students did with poems.

“There is also another series that has tracks of animals in the area,” Moore said.

Author: Kristin Millis

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