Article by Laura Fogg

“Dreams of Peace; Hopes for Our Future” is the theme chosen by Ukiahi art students for their April show at Art Center Ukiah.They could have come up with a simple concept that wouldn’t have required any serious thought or soul searching, but they overwhelmingly voted to take this deep dive into a seriously provocative topic.

The idea originated in Lech Slocinski’s dual enrollment class for advanced high school art students… MC Art 140. This is the first year this program has been offered. It’s a three-unit college-level class taught at the high school, and participating high school juniors and seniors earn full college credit. Students focus in the class on creating their individual art portfolios as well as putting on art shows.

This show started with a loose idea to create something interesting, relevant and important for April at Art Center Ukiah. With encouragement to decide on a theme, art student Tiby-Ann Owen created a questionnaire in February that was distributed to students in all of the art classes taught at Ukiahi. She then collated over 120 responses in bar graph format to present to the committee of her classmates that were charged to choose the theme. Almost all of the ideas fit under the loose umbrella of peace and hope, which was reworded to the show’s title; “Dreams of Peace; Hopes for Our Future.”

Once the theme was chosen, students in various classes, supported by their teachers, began discussing how they would approach the project. Each class came up with their own unique response. Students in the MESA program (taught by Sezgin Ramirez and Adelaida Torres), are creating an installation of over 700 origami doves. Sezgin laughs, “They have to use math principles to do the origami!” The students are still discussing the challenge of hanging the doves to convey both the ideas of pain and peace. Jay Montesonti’s metal shop students will be fashioning a bouquet of roses out of welded metal.

Students from Ollie Praz-Lodge’s Spanish Language classes have spent the semester creating a beautiful display of “Alebrijes” (Angels of Peace) for the show. Ollie explains, “Earlier this year Miguel Quintana, a renowned 5th generation artist from Puebla, Mexico, presented the traditional craft of alebrije making to students at Ukiah High School. Pronounced ‘ah-leh-bree-hayss,’ these are traditionally very free-form creations representing a combination of features from various animals, some real snd some imaginary… rendered in wood, wire and papier-mâché.”

Ollie continues, “The pieces the students made are a result of our Spanish class students’ internalization and personalization of this art form, Each student has created a unique and detailed figure in a meeting of vision, craftsmanship and expression. These figurines may be seen as messengers of peace, bridging the gap between our world’s challenges and the greater unity and love we imagine and know to be possible.”

Three classes; advanced art (taught by Rose Easterbrook), advanced ceramics (taught by Jim Persky) and advanced fashion design (taught by Katrena Dursteler) are collaborating on an enormous dinner party installation inspired by the famous work of Judy Chicago.

Students in Lech Slocinski’s Art 140 class have been working together for several months to create and audition photos that express their individual responses to the theme… to hang on the walls to complement the installations.

Giovanny Barron was eager to talk about his participation. “This project is really special.” he says. “Everyone gets to focus on a topic like their culture, background, or personal interests; and it is uniting all the departments at the high school. The show is a nice way to put everything from the high school together and give it a spotlight. My own photos focus on sports and places in Mexico where my family is from. They will be proud. Photography can unite the world because it’s important to see other cultures represented. We are all connected, but at the same time our diversity is important.”

Another participant, Devin Bushway, describes himself as “really into science.” He is using his skills as a photographer as a “good way to show how cool science is.” He elaborates, “Biology has to do with life. Without the plants on the earth we won’t have any hope for the future. Science makes the world go around. When you get down to the molecular world, everything is science. To get that message across I am focusing on up-close images of both the natural world and the laboratory world.”

Emily Valle, who is the show’s coordinator, sees her art as her voice. She explains, “This is a topic that needs to be addressed NOW for our generation. After COVID we all got antisocial and afraid, and took a step back. Now we are connecting with each other through this project and getting students involved in the community. We can use our art to express what we are feeling without having to say a lot. What do we see for our future? Our message is that we need to be taken seriously. We are taking the reins here and we need to be heard.”

The centerpiece of the “Dreams of Peace, Hopes for Our Future” April show at Art Center Ukiah will be an installation on a large round table in the center of the room. Loosely based on Judy Chicago’s infamous “Dinner Party,” this work is the result of months of collaboration among three selected art classes at Ukiah High School.

Jim Persky’s advanced ceramics class spent the month of February creating twenty bisqueware plates in two sizes, which were fired and then handed over to Rose Easterbrook’s advanced art class to be painted with ceramic glazes. Rose explains, “The students came up with their own responses to the theme to achieve a totally collaborative idea for the ‘Peace’ theme. First we talked about the history and significance of Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party” and that got the discussion rolling.” She continues, “The idea of gathering at a table (it had to be a round table) was pivotal. That is where peace is happening, where we break bread and share meals. I asked the students who they imagined would be there for this dinner party? How do they each see it?” The students brainstormed as a group during class and chose the main idea for the installation. They self-selected into pairs, to create ten place settings as well as writing statements to explain their thoughts on the topic.

Maleah Walley explains, “In class we brainstormed what we wanted the theme to be. ‘Aspects of Humanity’ was my idea and the others liked it. With that topic we figured we could all make place settings which could reflect our hopes for the future.”

The aspect of humanity that Maleah and her partner chose for their plates was science and technology. Maleah continues, “I believe that technology has become intertwined with humanity. Newer generations are dependent on technology, so in the future the use of technology will either become more heightened or more distant. My plate shows how life and science have interacted with each other.” This is the first time Maleah has had her artwork displayed in public, but probably not the last. “I want to be a filmmaker so I’m looking forward to having more work be public,” she says. “Art is a vehicle for me to get my message out.”

Josie Bogner, who partnered with Maleah on the aspect of science and technology, admitted “I had a hard time with the painting because of the glazes that I’m not familiar with. But I wanted to get over that hurdle so I could focus on how nature and modern science can work together in the future instead of tearing each other apart. I wanted to get that message across.”

Another student, Lucille Shakman, chose a theme of war and peace. “I immediately was very excited because I instantly knew what message I wanted to convey. I’m a passionate person, so with this project I definitely wanted to go all out with planning it. It was fun working collaboratively, but we had to plan and compromise.”

Appreciation of nature was the aspect chosen by Lucy Talso. and her partner. “It was hard to come up with a specific focus for our plates since nature is so big,” Lucy explains. “I chose to do a calm scene instead of creating chaos by trying to represent all aspects of nature. I enjoyed seeing everyone in our class working together on their collaborations. Everything came out because we were all working on different aspects of of the same issue.”

Tiby-Ann Owen was one of the people who spearheaded the whole project and came up with the original “Peace’ theme. “My plate is about life in Mendocino County,” she says. “I wanted it to be a homey scene that I could relate to.” Tiby’s partner Marin showed the broader aspect of the whole world in her plate. “I showed a connecting path between the US and Mexico,” she explains. “It’s full of symbols. Our local area is so diverse, so I wanted to keep the message broad as opposed to too specific. I wanted to focus on being inclusive.”

Hailey Bridge did a couple of plates with people. One, called ‘Body and Soul,’ depicts two people who are the same person but at different stages. “One is sad,” says Hailey, “and the other is happy. Just because somebody looks happy on the outside, they aren’t necessarily happy on the inside. Basically people can heal and grow in a positive way… or revert or devolve into old negative ways. My message is to shine light on stuff that isn’t always talked about.” Hailey continues, “I really enjoy doing art, and a lot of my drawings relate to me, whether or not they look like me. I can express stuff through my art that I haven’t got words to express.” Hailey’s other plate depicts her Black great grandmother, who had a hand in raising her. “I showed her with two powerful historical Black leaders,” Hailey says, “to show how strong she was. This felt like a good way to honor Black History Month”

Once all the plates were painted with glazes and refired, they were moved on to their third station… Katrena Dursteler’s Advanced Fashion Design class. There, the students are spending the last few weeks before the show opens looking at the place settings and reading the individual statements that the artists wrote about each pair of plates. The fashion design students will then use their sewing and design skills to create placemats and napkins to go with the specific themes and colors of each place setting.

“Dreams of Peace; Hopes for Our Future” is generously sponsored by Ukiah HIgh School Retired Educators: Bob Bender & Beverly Spence, Jerry Garcia, Phil Gary, Glenn Gawel, Jim & Mary Hatfield, Holly Rodgers and Ron & Francine Selim.

The First Friday opening is on April 5 from 5-8pm at the Corner Gallery. Live music will be provided throughout the evening by “Midas Well” aka Char Jacob’s and Chris Gibson. The gallery is located at 201 S State St in Ukiah.