From painting to advanced metals, our school currently offers nearly any medium that student artists—whether experienced or novice—might be interested in pursuing. However, if you’re doubting your artistic skills, our art department at Groves has got you covered. Anthony Fink, our school’s multimedia art teacher, and Alana Iafrate, now in her first year teaching Photography and Ceramics at Groves, have gone out of their way this semester to show Groves students just how much their classes encourage not just students’ skills, but their self-expression as well. 

Gianna Carr, a ninth-grade student currently taking Drawing as an elective, recently created a piece that combines her own political message with the importance of the First Amendment in our everyday lives. Her artwork, made almost entirely with colored pencils, consists of a pair of unsettling hands puppeteering news headlines before a theatrical background—an eerie reminder of how frequently our government has taken action against its citizens’ freedom of speech. 

“I wrote this piece because I feel like free speech in our country is being threatened by our president, and I would like to educate as many people on it as possible,” Carr said.

While the idea was her own, Carr claims that Fink, whom she had for drawing, helped guide her through the eight-hour process of layering colors and implementing unique elements to make her piece shine. 

“…I wanted to learn how to use colored pencils. So Mr. Fink taught me how to layer and [helped with] the meaning behind the piece…a puppeteer,” Carr said. 

Amanda Anchak, a Groves senior in Metals, has also employed her artistic talents to create quite an awe-inspiring piece. By combining her own personal project with a hands-on assignment, her artwork is not only beautiful but meaningful as well. Anchak states that the moon and clouds are a reference to the book she’s writing, a miniature replica of the Pinterest board she used as inspiration for her story. To truly recreate the vibrancy of her reference picture, this young artist melted several strips of copper into thin layers using a jewelry-making technique known as “soldering”.

            “[I used] pretty much mainly soldering, and then…turning copper a different color,” she said. “I use different levels of hard, medium, and easy solder to get it to work properly.”

Additionally, Anchak mentions that Fink—her Metals teacher—made it possible for her to learn the techniques needed to bring her vision to life. 

“I did the creative process on my own. I was even able to think of how I wanted to layer the metals,” she explained. “[Mr. Fink] helped me, mainly with figuring out how to solder it together, and then the actual process of soldering it properly.”

If creativity isn’t your strong suit, however, look no further than Fink’s Mural Club. Open to anyone, Mural Club is a safe space for students to wind down after a long school day and spend some quality time painting murals with their friends. Whether students join just for fun, or share his goal to brighten up our school walls with beautiful art, Fink has made it clear that he appreciates all new members just the same. When asked why students should be interested in joining, he had this to say;

“[Students should join] if they just want, you know, an end of the day break…just listening to music and hanging out with some friends. You know, it’s just kind of a nice decompressor,” Fink said. 

However, the club’s goal encompasses a bigger picture—filling every empty space on our school walls with artwork made by the student body itself. Fink believes that, above all else, making murals can brighten not just the building, but students’ lives as well.

“[My favorite thing is] beautifying public spaces, taking an area that nobody ever thought twice about, or an area that just seemed sort of dark and gloomy, and turning it into a place where people want to sit and hang out…” Fink said. “And it just brings a lot of, I think, value to the school.”

Fink’s Mural Club is always in need of more helpers, and students are welcome to walk through the colorfully painted door at the end of the art hallway if they want to try their hand at something new.

No matter how inexperienced you might be, it’s never too late to experiment with a new hobby. Take a trip to our school’s art hallway, and you might just find the perfect fit!