ARLINGTON — On Monday, Taylor Wilkins and Alana Adams of Arlington Memorial High School were visiting the Southern Vermont Arts Center with their fellow classmates and their art teacher, Christine Wood.
Rather than viewing the art on display, both Wilkins and Adams were there to take down their work that was on display.
Wilkins had two paintings showing at the gallery, and Adams had five pieces of pottery and a pencil still life.
Wilkins’ still life is of a bowl of fruit. The bowl of fruit is such a common theme that it might seem mundane. However, the background of Wilkins’ still life is a dark and alluring teal – and the contrast with the orange tones of the fruit, the woven basket, and the patterned towel that drapes over the edge of the basket – bring a depth and a warmth to the piece. The combination of the opposite color scheme has created a painting that is inviting and striking. It is bold.
“The still life I did last year,” said Wilkins. “It was just kind of fun to do, but there was no special meaning to it. But the butterfly, I just really like butterflies.”
Wilkins indicated the painting above the still life of a monarch hanging along the ridge of the frame.
“I took a picture myself, and then I used Gouache to paint it out. I just really wanted to show the color and the vibrancy. I just think they’re beautiful.”
Gouache is similar to watercolor, but is less translucent; it is known as the “opaque” watercolor. It contains a binding agent, produces vibrant results, and does not fade easily over time.
A portion of Adams’ exhibit is located just to the right of Wilkins’ artwork.
On a pedestal sit two pottery objects – a barn and a teapot. Behind them, on the wall, is a pencil still life with a pitcher, a feather, and a dreamcatcher.
The teapot is covered with flowers, including daisies – a flower of significance to Adams because they were a flower that connected her to her great-grandmother. Her great-grandmother recently passed, and Adams felt a need to memorialize her loss by dedicating the teapot in remembrance.
At the mid-point in the stairs to the upper galleries lies the balcony gallery. This is where Adams' three other pieces were exhibited.
“A lot of my mom’s side of the family is Native American – Mohawk tribe – so a lot of this was taken from that Native American heritage,” said Adams of the three pottery vases standing on a display pedestal.
The forms are terracotta, and intricate and geometric designs weave their way across the belly of each. The base and the shoulder of the vases are unmarked, but the neck portion of each is adorned in a matching geometric pattern.
Adams worked the clay using wooden materials and her hands. “I didn’t really use a wheel. These were all hand-building techniques – they were slab and coil.”
Each of the vases has a common and unique feature – three curved points rising up from the rim – and beneath the convex curve of these points sits a face.
“These faces in the points are very common,” said Adams, indicating the distinct feature present in her work. “People don’t really know why a lot of these faces are on the pottery, and they haven’t really found a reason, but I have them dedicated to different aspects of Native American culture – spirit, soul, and dream.”
The largest of Adams’ three vases represented spirit, the middle-sized one represented soul, and the smallest of the set represented dream. The largest of the vases took Adams about three weeks to construct, with the final project of all three taking a little over six weeks.
Adams explained that each of the three vases has multiple faces, emphasizing the importance of symbolism to the Mohawk people. The faces present on each vase referenced different aspects of the spiritual beliefs present in their culture, and the significance of each element was detailed in Adams’ artist statement.
The exhibit that Wilkins and Adams participated in, the High School Spotlight, is currently being deconstructed to make way for a new gallery of art.
The next student art show to be hosted by the Southern Vermont Arts Center, Art from the Schools 2024, will run from Saturday, April 27 to Sunday, May 26. An opening reception will take place on April 27 from 2-4 p.m., and the exhibition will host the work of nearly three dozen local schools with an age range of pre-K to 12th grade.