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Students explore art’s meaning
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RONAN — Great art compels a person to ask questions and explore its meaning.
That’s what students at K. William Harvey Elementary School learned Thursday when Tess Fahlgren of Art Mobile of Montana brought about 30 pieces of fine art to the school, including a clay sculpture from India and works from local artists Corky Clairmont and Anthony Yazzie.
“It’s kind of like bringing the museum to them,” KWH art teacher Barnaby Smith said.
Students pondered the scratches in a diptych by Yazzie titled “Coyote Makes the Stars – A Navajo Story.”
“Maybe he wanted to use the scratches as expression?” one insightful first-grade student asked.
The painting raised the question of why the coyote had a person’s body.
“He’s a trickster,” was the answer.
Clairmont’s multi-media piece, “Pow Wow,” drew interest with its Indian-head nickel and gummy bear images.
Fahlgren explained that Clairmont included items that are of cultural significance to him, that others use without thinking of their importance.
“Like eating gummy bears as if bears don’t even exist,” she said.
Students noted the red and white striped lettering looked like a Christmas celebration. Smith noted the “pow” lettering was similar to what he read in comic books as a child.
Fahlgren explained how colors represent meanings. The use of black paint can evoke feelings of darkness, sadness and even evil, she said as she spoke about a three-dimensional sculpture of a mounted dinosaur head.
The focus of the traveling art program is to allow rural students access to fine art, Fahlgren explained.
“And, to teach more sophisticated ways of talking about art and museum etiquette,” she said.
The program is sponsored by grants from the Montana Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Gallagher Foundation Grant for schools west of the continental divide.
