FRESNO, California (KSEE) – Imagine being given only four hours to complete a piece of art-work: local students participating in the annual heARTbeat event took on that challenge.
The event is designed to showcase local art with students participating in a top chef kind of competition – the public gets a front-row seat inside the K-Jewel Art Gallery in Downtown Fresno.
It started with art students from Kerman, Bullard, and Crescent View Charter School selecting an envelope. Inside were lyrics.
“Their task is to then take that text those lyrics and also translate the music into a visual art piece,” said Fresno County Superintendent of Schools’ Aaron Bryan.
After listening to the lyrics, students Jasmine Barcoma and Mallory Bandy from Kerman High began to see a vision for the artwork they would create.
“How we interpreted it was that right now in the world we should be loving and caring for each other but that’s not what’s happening, there is a lot of brutality and violence,” said Jasmine Barcoma.
They created a profile of a person: on the inside all things peaceful and right; on the outside was a representation of violence and world hunger.
“That is my and my friend Mallory’s wish for the future that it will become peaceful.”
This project is about teamwork with students putting into practice the skill of collaboration.
Students had only four hours to complete their paintings.
“It was a stressful experience at first but once we got the hang of what we were doing we got our sketch laid out and we were ready to paint I think we gained confidence and we knew what we were doing,” said Central High West student Whittney Ankney.
People had the opportunity to buy the student’s art and all the money raised will go to SPARK, an initiative of the office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools that supports art education.
