Waterford Shines In Student Art Show

Featuring hundreds of works of art by local students, the sixth Whalers and Lancers Art Exhibit opened Saturday at .

The display features work by high school students from and , along with the . The exhibit gives the students the opportunity to sell their work, said Andrea Aron, an art teacher at the New London High School.

“It gives them the feeling of being an actual professional artist,” Aron said. “It’s wonderful for students to sell their work.”

These students could become artists, Aron said. Some of them have already been accepted to art school, she said.

Tour Guide

“Hygienic is known all over the country, especially in the shows they present,” Aron said.

C.J. Thibeau, a student in Waterford, had a number of photographs in the exhibit. He acted as tour guide, demonstrating enthusiasm for the subject as he explained the subjects and techniques in his pictures along with one of his friend’s entries.

One of Thibeau’s photos, entitled “Falling into Winter” is a picture of a couple of benches in his backyard with leaves all around them.

“I thought it was very interesting,” Thibeau said of the shot.

“Reach for the Sky” is another picture Thibeau took in his backyard of a tree. He walked around the tree and took over 50 photos before choosing the one in the show. It is a tree that he used to climb when he was younger and is a home for a family of squirrels.

Thibeau said he is “very open minded” when he is choosing objects to capture with his camera. His work is about perspectives, he said.

Gale Franklin attended the art show because her granddaughter, Emmy, had an exhibit in it.

“I’m very impressed with the kids’ imaginations,” Franklin said. “It’s fun to see a lot of young people looking at art.”

Emmy’s pottery project, “Holding Hands,” a ceramic bowl with hands on it, took her two months to produce. She said the reason for choosing what to create for her project came down to “what’s more beautiful then hands?”

Emmy won’t be selling the bowl since she “worked too hard on it.” She created the bowl by hand and didn’t use a pottery wheel, she said.

Suprise Giraffe

Rhonda Weber, an art teacher at , was surprised by one of her student’s pieces in the show. Her student, Danielle Denton, created a giraffe lamp for the show.

As Denton was creating the lamp for her boyfriend in Tennessee, Weber would tease her every day by saying it was for her, Weber said. Denton created a second giraffe lamp for her and titled the piece, “Surprise Mrs. Weber!:).” The teacher discovered the gift on Saturday.

“I was in love with it,” Weber said. “I’m absolutely blown away.”

The exhibit runs through Jan. 21.