All the art students are saying is give peace a chance

By Katerina Athanasiou Correspondent


While the Merriam-Webster dictionary describes peace as harmony in personal relations, West Orange High School students are attempting to expand this meaning by bringing about peace through art.

For the past eight months, talented West Orange High School artists, members of the art club, as well as New York City professional artists from a collective art group known as SOSIC, worked together to create a peace mural which will be exchanged with the artistic creations of students in a village in Ghana - the township's new adopted village.

SOSIC consist of four artists who also exist under their alter ego artist names. Scott Andre Patterson is also known as The Me Nobody See PEACE, Page 7 A group effort, including West Orange High School art students and New York city professional artists, worked to create a peace mural that will be exchanged with the creations of students in a village in Ghana - the township's newly adopted sister village. Peace murals hoped to bring world change through art.

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Knows or TMNK, Anthony Vasquez is also known as Avone, Mike Baca is also known as 2ESAE and Fernando Romero is also known as SKI. Jeff Rudy, West Orange High School alumni and co-founder of Where Peace Lives, a non-profit organization which is focused on conflict resolution and peace building training for children and teenagers, introduced the idea for the peace mural and will sponsor the project. In 2006, the organization began an International Peace Mural Exchange Project. The project's goal is to be the largest cultural art exchange ever.

Students were asked to draw what they envisioned as a peaceful world. One particular student's vision stood out.

"A student by the name of Diana Siegel sketched an idea that everyone took to and used as a springboard for the vision," said West Orange High School art teacher Diane Tol, who supervised the mural and supervises the art club Together, students worked as a cohesive unit to achieve the goal of creating a peace mural that would appeal to an international audience. The project not only allowed for team work between students, but for life lessons to be learned.

"The experience was beneficial to the students because the skills used to make important decisions as a group can be used in any real life situation," said Tol. Sharing a vision for peace with another country is really special in itself."

As one would expect, the students' enthusiasm to work on such a large and positive project was apparent.

" I was excited to have the opportunity to exchange my work with another country," said Lizzy Storm, one of the students who worked on the project, "and I'm still eager to see what they'll give us in exchange."

Gaby Bravoco, a junior at West Orange High and an art student, agreed.

"The experience was incredible. I didn't realize how much you could express yourself through art. It was nice to come together with other students to convey such a amazing message."

Other students were unsure about how the project's goal would be achieved, but found it to be a beneficial experience. "I thought it was a very rewarding experience," said student, Ivorine Fung. "Originally, I never thought peace could be spread through artwork."

Even students not involved in the project felt that enthused about it. Fellow art student and senior Sally Hammer said, "Although I did not work on the peace mural, it was impressive to see such a diverse group of students use their talents to create something so beautiful."

On June 3 at the West Orange High School art show, after many months of hard work, the peace murals were finally unveiled and the results were incredible. Tol was thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of such stunning creations and to be able to work with the New York artists and her own students towards peace. "I have had the privilege to work alongside the infamous SOSIC art group, who have recently participated in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and were featured in The Daily News.

Working with the SOSIC collective on this project has not only inspired us as artists, but has brought light to the fact that we can all work together to achieve a common goal: peace." Also at the art show, an eclectic mix of artwork was displayed and awards were given. Students Malachi Cameron, who won the award for best advanced placement art portfolio alongside friend and fellow senior Zeke Decker, who won the award for best use of art, are appreciative of the support and experience that their participation in the art program has given them.

These advanced placement art students both expressed they enjoyed working with such talented artists and will both be attending the School of Visual Arts in New York City in the fall. Senior Molly Wachtel, an advanced art student, designed a piece which had five clay masks aligned in a series of blank to complex expressions. Her artwork was meant to show the progression of expression.

Wachtel won an award for this piece and will be going to New York University this fall. Another senior, Lizzy Storm, has been enjoying art since elementary school and, since the beginning of high school, has taken art lessons in New York City at the Art Students League. Storm, now an advanced placement art student, shared that her favorite part of art is the reaction that people have. She is also the art club treasurer and plans to attend Rhode Island School of Design and major in illustration.

Baca helped with the peace mural by lending his graffiti skills. "The students are really talented. I went to a specialized art high school, Art in Design in Manhattan, and it was nothing like this."

Seeing a community come together over the talent of its youth is inspiring. Generations of parents, students, teachers, administrators and artists gathered to not only see the beautiful art on display, but to see the beginning of using art as a vehicle for a lofty goal - the attempt to achieve peace.

Katarina Athanasiou is a West Orange High School student.