Student artists receive delayed recognition

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

While the teen-aged artists are no longer Van Wert Middle School students, an art project they were involved with as eighth graders received some recognition — albeit a year late, due to the COVID-19 pandemic — Wednesday evening at the YWCA of Van Wert County.

YWCA Director of Advocacy Kelly Houg opened the ceremony to unveil seven paintings that represent the words in the YWCA’s mission statement: “Eliminate racism, empower women, promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.”

VWMS art teacher Trinda Keber also spoke briefly about the project, noting she was excited when the students in her Independent Art class last year began telling her of their ideas for the project she assigned them: to create artwork based on all or a portion of the YWCA mission statement.

“I thought ‘oh my gosh, this is going to be beautiful; this isn’t just going to be something they’re going to put in the basement’,” she said.

Each of the students, now all freshmen at Van Wert High School, spoke briefly on their individual artwork, which embodied either the entire mission statement or individual words in the statement.

Sarah Verville said she painted Native American woman Sacagawea and used her statement “everything I do is for my people” to represent dignity. Ella Hernandez painted Rosie the Riveter flexing her muscles to represent the idea of empowering women, while Emma Wallace painted Rosa Parks with a bus behind her to represent “eliminating racism.”

Gage Stemen, the only boy in the group, noted that his painting, which showed chains falling from a person, represented the word “freedom”, while Debbie Jones’ painting incorporated peace signs and included a partial quote from Jane Goodall that said: “We can have a world of peace, we can move toward a world where we live in harmony with nature. Where we live in harmony with each other. No matter what nation we come from.”

Citlali Aguilar-Montiel’s painting represented several of the elements of the mission statement and showed a black woman, along with quotes from a number of pioneering black women, such as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.

Alexis Pangle’s painting incorporated the entire mission statement and showed Lady Justice holding her scales.

Each of the student artists received a gift from the YWCA in appreciation for their artwork, which is now hanging in the YWCA’s boardroom.