San Ramon Students Unveil Portraits of Seniors, On Display Until End of Month

An extraordinary art exhibit launches in San Ramon this week showcasing Dougherty Valley High School art students portraying the lives and experiences of San Ramon seniors. Student artists have interviewed, photographed and created individual portraits of 22 senior citizens, capturing a piece of their life story, through the beauty of age.

On Thursday, January, 8, 2015, students will unveil these portraits to their senior subjects at the Alcosta Senior & Community Center Gallery. The portraits will be on display to the public through the exhibit “Beauty in Age” at the Alcosta Senior & Community Center Gallery fromJanuary 2 to 30, 2015.

“Each work is highly individualized, unique, and beautiful,” said Dougherty Valley High art teacher Kelsey Wengel. “I highly encourage the public to attend this exhibit, to see a small snapshot of the thoughtful, complex work our students are producing.”

The project began as a field trip to the Senior Center, where students interviewed each senior citizen to learn about their lives. The students photographed each participant and returned to class to create unique portraits. They used a variety of media, styles and sizes, to best suit each senior’s wishes, while also telling a piece of their story.

The students focused upon capturing not only their likeness, but also aimed to encapsulate parts of their personality, past, memories and dreams. Some portraits include husband and wife. One couple requested a painting of their wedding day (because they never had a formal wedding picture). Some are modern and others are traditional in style. Selected works for sale.

The Alcosta Senior and Community Center Gallery is located at 9300 Alcosta Blvd. in San Ramon.

Information, photos submitted by San Ramon Valley Unified

Photo via Shutterstock