Rockwell Remixed and Free to View
MDI High School's Online Show Brings Passion and Resonance to Viewers
BAR HARBOR—Local artists aren’t just displaying their art in galleries, on restaurant, bank, and hotel walls, and in private homes this summer.
They are also sharing it online with the hopes of making it accessible to many people and also to showcase the talents of some teens from Mount Desert Island High School.
Former MDI graduate and current teacher, Flannery Dillon became the National Art Honor Society advisor at the high school this school year.
“We just completed our final show for the year, and created a digital gallery for folks to enjoy throughout the summer,” Dillon said.
The students’ art and brief descriptions grace the webpage in a smooth scroll that invites viewers to stop, pause, and ponder. Mediums used might be watercolors, acrylics, mixed media, or colored pencils. One artist used acrylic on three panes of glass.
In all, the art’s poignancy resonates beyond the screen. This is not just a way of displaying the artists’ work but a way of seeing the artist and the world they inhabit. As artist and writer Brassai once said, “Only powerfully conceived images have the ability to penetrate the memory, to stay there, in short to become unforgettable.”
There are penetrating images here, but there are also poignant statements, wisdom, and thought in the words that accompany the art.
“Only through acting, or being perceived does some distinctive identity of mine become discernible, an identity which often comes as a surprise, or seems startlingly divergent from my private sense of self,” Isabelle Peterson wrote for her piece “But I Forget Myself ...”
Peterson continued, "There is a certain horror to remembering that you are alive—and worse, sentient. Most of the things I enjoy doing require some erasure of self: acting, writing, reading; in all, one sheds their identity and takes up another.”
The final show for the school year was the first show Dillon took on as the National Art Honor Society advisor.
“I think it was a great introduction into the talents of the group. Two of our group members who will be co-presidents of the group this coming fall came up with the idea of ‘remixing’ a famous work of art by a known artist,” she said.
The group decided that Norman Rockwell’s “Triple Self-Portrait” was the piece that would be remixed.
“It was so great to see the students implement the themes of identity, self-portraiture and the imagery of trios in their work in their own individual styles,” Dillon said. “I’m really looking forward to the coming academic year as we already have a lot of fun and rigorous projects planned!”
The digital show includes work or discussion of work by Cora Lester, Isabelle Peterson, Ila Boatright, Jocelyn Verrill, Abigail Butler, Lily Guess, Alexander Burnett, Katie Horton, Evelyn Hardy, Jesse Patterson, Morgan Matthews, Angela Zhang, and Sophia Murphy.
All images from the students.
TO VIEW THE SHOW
https://sites.google.com/mdirss.org/nahsremixshow/home
Dillon’s Etsy Shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlanneryDillonArt
MORE ABOUT US AND YOU
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here.
For those who can no longer get to art shows this is awesome!