Cameron’s collection of magazine cutouts, which included the lips of the Joker from the movie “The Dark Knight” and stitch markings from a picture of Jack Skellington, the protagonist in “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” formed a “creepy” human face, he said.
His classmate, 17-year-old Yong Kim, had also put together a human face and was adding shades of purple and gray to add more depth to his painting.
“It makes it more realistic,” said Yong, who hoped to major in art after moving on to college.
The students worked quietly at easels lined along the walls of the large high-ceilinged room, as teacher Brad Brandmeyer’s iPod played an eclectic mix of music in the background.
“It’s a nice way to start the day,” Brandmeyer said of the morning painting class, which aimed to give students a fascination and passion for art, rather than stressing techniques that could turn off some teens, he said.
Brandmeyer asks the students, many of whom had not been previously well-versed in art, to experiment with their own expressive tendencies by first copying the works of famous artists, then building off of the themes in those pieces to infuse their own creativity into their work, he said.
The assignments are not without some exposure to technique, but the course focus is more on enjoyment, Brandmeyer said.
“They’re trying to use some of the technical aspects they’ve learned from copying and put in something of themselves,” he said.
The approach gives students a chance to experience the joys that art can offer, without getting bogged down by a regimen of technical exercises that are not always easy, he said.
“Then, if a student decides to pursue it more deeply, they go into it more confident than if they’re just torn down in the beginning,” he said.
The painting class has offered 16-year-old Anna Wilson an opportunity to explore her own expressive tendencies.
Anna takes art classes at a private studio where she gains more technical instruction, but doesn’t always have the freedom to discover her own creativity, she said.
“Here I’m kind of realizing that I think I have a style,” Anna said.
She pointed to her painting, an abstract representation of gossip that included an image of a person’s mouth and a pink word cloud of gibberish.
“I like bright colors and mixing them, and I like there to be a meaning behind the picture,” she said.
