UW Artmobile visits Saratoga

Students in both middle and high school were given an incredible opportunity to study with Sarita Keller, Director of the Ann Simpson Art Mobile Program. Dr. Keller teaches a class at the University of Wyoming and works in the UW Art Museum.

According to Keller, the Artmobile's current exhibition 'Off the Beaten Path: Contemplating the Land' invites viewers to think deeply about complex relationships with the land. The seventeen works of art in the exhibit include etchings, lithographs, digital and serigraph prints. Images range from realistic to artistic–representing diverse perspectives of place that capture our geographic imagination. The content of the exhibit is meant to encourage discussions of place and identity, story and memory, how we experience the physical and ethereal when we venture off the beaten path and contemplate the land.

Art 1 high school students were engaged in conversations about maps and their variety of uses. Students constructed an abstract map, marking locations to significant life events or places that carried personal meaning. The students also created a separate key or legend to interpret their map and journey.

Art 2,3 and 4 high school students worked as artist-scientists to capture photograms, A photogram an image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material, of local natural specimens using sun sensitive media. Students formed texture, symmetry and repetition in local flora through a variety of printmaking techniques including monotypes and drypoint etching and other experiments.

The seventh grade art class went outside to use a viewfinder to frame a landscape subject of their choice. Students mapped out their landscape and noted textures, patterns and colors. Students completed their work through collage with colored, textured, and printed papers.