Artist in Residence 2016 - St. John's Academy, Hillsdale, NJ

On May 11, 2016, I was honored to be chosen as the Artist in Residence for the annual Spring Arts Festival at St. John's Academy in Hillsdale, NJ.  This was the 9th year that mothers Lisa Maisano and Rosanne Baccaci have been organizing and presenting a week-long event which is designed to instill in the students a love for the arts.  The students look forward to it!  This year, I was chosen to give a talk to the 350 Kindergarten through Eighth grade students about the creation and appreciation of the art of stained glass.

For this special week, Mrs. Maisano and Mrs. Bacacci transformed the school gym into an homage to artists and the student's artwork. Each class was assigned to study and recreate a well-known painting or sculpture.  They then used their skills to re-create the work.  Here is "Girl With a Pearl Earring" by Jan Vermeer in the midst of the students' interpretations.

Here is the Paul Cezanne exhibit wherein students painted their versions of one of his many fruit still life paintings.  Among the many other artists represented in the gym and onstage were Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas.

This enclosed booth showed Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" under black lights.  Salt was added to the paint to create a lovely blue cast.  

 

Here's my rendition of Starry Night in stained glass, one of my earliest pieces, which I brought to show the students.  After each slide or topic, I gave the students an opportunity to ask questions, and there were many good ones.  My favorite?  "Are you famous?"  Loved that!

All of the students recognized this work immediately.  I brought it into the sunlight to show them how the colors pop in the light, which drew "ooh's" and "ahhs" from the students.  They were a wonderful, attentive audience!

Using a Power Point presentation, I walked the students through the major steps needed to create a stained glass window, from design to installation by my husband, Eric.  I taught them about the two major kinds of glass, cathedral and opalescent.  I also explained a bit about the 1,000 year history of this beautiful art, and how honored I am to be continuing this tradition.

I told the students about my passion for this art form and my commitment to quality on every repair and custom window I create.  Since these windows can last 100 years, I etch each custom window with my name and date, in hopes that the quality of my work will stand the test of time.

This was a unique opportunity to share my love of stained glass with a new generation.  I would love to see some of the students pursue this art form.  At the end of my talk, I was delighted to be presented with a bouquet of gorgeous flowers by one of the students.  Van Gogh would approve of that sunflower!

Thank you so much Lisa and Rosanne, for inviting me to be part of your Spring Arts Festival.  I loved every minute!  Keep up your good work, and best of luck to all the students!

For more information on my other projects, please click here to visit my website.

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