Dearborn High School art teacher Monica Kubitskey (fifth from left) leads a team of Dearborn High School student artists, including Iyana Wilson (left), Aya Kassir, Lila Ryan, Arlo-Sage Molenda and Aiden Haidar as they work on different art projects April 15 at the Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.
Dearborn High School student artist Aiden Haidar displays the footwear he’s embellishing with paint and marker April 15 during live art demonstrations at the Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – With clay, paint, markers and other media, student artists from Dearborn High School offered live demonstrations the afternoon of April 15 in the Padzieski Gallery during April Arts Month.
DHS art teacher Monica Kubitskey said she doesn’t expect most of her students to become professional artists, but she is there to introduce them to a new experience.
“The one thing I usually tell everyone is I’m not here to make you an artist,” she said. “My students laugh, and I tell them I don’t want them to stress about grades and I am here to show you different things and how you can appreciate what people can do, and I am going to teach you baby steps.”
Kubitskey said she hopes her students come out of the class with at least one project with which they felt successful, as well as appreciating the intricacy of other things they can learn.
“Most of the kids really do see growth, they feel they have achieved something and they are super excited,” she said. “I take the pressure off and they seem to enjoy it.”
Kubitskey said that in this media-driven world it is important for students to have hands-on experiences.
Senior Aiden Haidar, who was using acrylic paint to produce a design on white athletic shoes, said he plans to seal the shoes once his work is complete.
“This is kind of a new thing to me, so I am really just learning some new stuff,” he said. “In the past I have done landscape drawings.”
Haidar said he enjoys spending more time on art now that the basketball season has ended, and he wishes he had taken more art classes earlier in high school.
Dearborn High School student artist Iyana Wilson works with clay April 15 during live art demonstrations at the Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.
Junior Arlo-Sage Molenda, who was home-schooled until he was 9, said he has taken a lot of non-traditional classes, including art-based experiences.
“Even in a class we took on history, we were building sculpture out of random objects,” he said. “I watched a lot of history videos as a kid, looking at different pottery in different civilizations, from the 1600s and stuff, which really drew me to wanting to work with clay.”
Sophomore Aya Kassir said she enjoyed taking art classes at Maples Elementary School, where she started to fall in love with art.
“Ever since I have been sketching, drawing and painting,” she said. “We also did ceramics at Maples, too, but we stopped in middle school. Then, in high school, I was surprised to be able to do ceramics again, so I took the class and really liked it a lot.”
Kassir said art lets her bring her creativity to life.
“It also helps me to express myself,” she said. “If, for example, I feel like I want something colorful, I can just put it all down on my paper, or maybe if I’m feeling gloomy, I can make like perhaps a sculpture that is sad or something, and that is how I can get my feeling out.”
Kassir said she would encourage other students to try art classes.
“Art is not about skill, it’s about doing it,” she said. “If you keep taking art classes, then you can get better with whatever you want.”
Freshman Lila Ryan said she has always loved art and being creative.
“It has been a passion my whole life, and I haven’t been praised for being the most advanced artist but being very creative,” she said. “I have had such great art teachers that really made me feel free to experiment, which really helped me to improve my art.”
Ryan said high school offered more classes to help her explore her love for art.
“All the opportunities I’ve gotten have been amazing and have only grown my love of art,” she said.
Ryan said she enjoys working with ceramics, watercolor and crocheting with yarn.
“It’s hard to pinpoint anything, because everything’s just so fun to try, even if you are not necessarily ‘good’ at it,” she said. “It’s just fun to experiment and get your hands on stuff.”
Junior Iyanna Wilson said she wasn’t really expecting to take a ceramics class this semester, but she found she really liked it.
“It’s a creative outlet,” she said. “I’ve been doing it since I was little, and I have a whole bucket of paint stuff I have, I have little things around my room that I have made out of clay, and I have a bunch of canvases.”
Wilson said drawing is a relaxing way for her to counter a stressful day.
“I will draw until I feel better,” she said. “You’ll find your way there and if you try, you’ll make something that you like.”
Dearborn High School student artists Aya Kassir (left) and Arlo-Sage Molenda work with clay April 15 during live art demonstrations at the Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.