Anthony Pinellowho runs a popular Italian deli at Harlem and Montrose Avenues in Norridge, knows a good art deal when he sees one.
With his family at the Leigh School Fine Art Show on Jan. 25, he snapped up one of the paintings, paying $25 (with $6 of the cost benefiting the Leigh art department) for the framed painting.
“We want to support local artists,” explained his wife, Renata. She was referring, in this case, to her son, Christian, a third-grader at Leigh and the artist of the piece, standing by her side.
Pride was flowing through the crowd of parents and Leigh School students circulating through the downstairs classroom at the school, at 8151 W. Lawrence Ave., where close to 260 framed paintings of the third- and fourth-graders’ work were on display — much as you might see in a gallery.
Teachers Ingrid Crepas and Denise Muscarello worked with students on the art side, while music teacher and choral director April Radzik paced students in the production that capped off the evening. The school teamed up with Artome, a company based in Northbrook, which helps schools create the art show experience, including putting the art on display for young artists viewing their work framed for the very first time.
“The presentation makes a big difference,” said Crepas.
The teachers, meanwhile, worked with students for months on the paintings that would be placed on display, highlighting different techniques and mixing in a little art history as part of the project.
The third-graders, for instance, learned all about “tessellations” and M.C. Escher, “a Dutch artist who loved to combine patterns in math and art,” wrote Crespas, on one of the informational boards placed around the classroom .”We learned that a true tessellation has no gaps or overlaps. We learned about ‘Slides, Flips, and Turns,’ a concept shared in math and art! First we traced one pattern animal shape very carefully. Then we had to search for how the next ones fit together.”
“Is your shape a slide, a flip, or a turn?” the young students were asked. They used mixed media, including Sharpies, markers, crayons and pencils, Crespas said, for the decoration.
Fourth-graders were swimmingly creative — turning their ingenuity loose in the style of Gyotaku, or Japanese fish prints.
“Gyotaku is the traditional Japanese method of printing fish, a practice which dates back to the mid-1800s,” Crespas wrote. “This form of nature printing was used by fishermen to record their catches, but has also become an art form of its own still practiced today!”
Students used cast silicone instead of real fish to make prints, Crepas said. “They carefully inked the fish with black water based ink, and then pressed paper on top of the inked fish to make their print!”
On the music side, students spent nearly three months practicing different styles of music for their show, said April Radzik, the music teacher at the kindergarten through fourth-grade school as well as its choral director.
Working from the ground up, the students “get to feel what it’s like to participate in a music performance, experience the process of making music and the components of that,” she said.
The parents and family members, many walking around with smiles as children led them to their paintings, were the beneficiaries of all that creative energy.
“I was expecting good work,” Rinata Pinello said, ” but when I walked in, I was really impressed.”
Nicole Evola was likewise impressed with daughter Gia Evola’s painting. The fourth-grader drew a self-portrait, one of the other artistic styles studied, which showed her in her cheerleader outfit.
As with many artists, the painting wasn’t done overnight.
“We used paint and Sharpies to make (it),” Gia explained, “and we don’t have many art days each week. It took a pretty long time.”
The painting has a home.
“Maybe her room or a hallway,” said her mother, “I think the frame really completes it.”
