I had the privilege of visiting with some very exceptional students at Pinckneyville Middle School.  This visit was one of the many visits that I do yearly around this time.  It was my personal sneak peek at the Chairs for Charity Silent Auction items being carefully crafted.  I enjoyed going and talking to these students and listening to them talk about their experiences painting the chairs.

These rising 8^th graders took creativity up another notch this year, some worked solo while others decided to work together and just seeing the masterpieces made me feel like I needed to take lessons from these students.

Claire Philpott and Brooke Yost crafted a black background with a self-written verse surrounded by flowers and a humming bird.   I asked them what inspired them to collaborate and how they got that idea.  Claire said the quote “Beauty isn’t about having a pretty face, it’s about having a pretty mind, a pretty heart and a pretty soul”, inspired the flowers.  Brooke said it felt like a lifetime writing the verse with the tip of a pencil, and the flowers inspired here to add the humming bird.

To add to the whimsical creativity Natalie Robinson and Cate Schall decided to go “cartoony” and did a draft of a frog and thought it was cute.  Cate sponged different colors to give it a depth effect and a two-toned color, this then inspired her to have flowers wrap around the chair.

I then met Grace Rawden, who took my breath way.  Grace has been attending art classes daily from the first day she started at Pinckneyville Middle School and is very serious about her art.  I did not get to see Grace’s chair but after her description – “a flower with a face, with hands like petals and a bird in the mist”, I understood clearly what she meant when she said “it was fantasy and make belief” that inspired her design.

New this year the students will be painting metal mailboxes and I had my first encounter with First Name “Mail” Last Name “Monster” that’s Mr. Mail Monster by Julia Smith.  Julia said that feathers inspired her to come up with that concept.  She enjoyed the texture and doodled the idea on paper and the monster came to life.

Art teacher Barbara Nassar has been teaching for 27 years and this is her 22^nd year at Pinckneyville Middle School, she said the students are very artistic, self-motivated and very controlled.  The only direction the kids had from Ms. Nassar was how to use spray paint, and she instructed them to have FUN!   Visit our Facebook Page Chairs for Charity – Norcross to see additional pictures of the items.

Ms. Nassar is also one of the artists that will be showcasing her work at the Norcross Art Fest this year, so come on out October 1^st and 2^nd and support these artists.