On the Trails With Bill Hoke
What do our local children see when offered the opportunity to create a drawing or painting under the theme of “camping in the mountains”?
Thanks to a consortium of local artists, business people, gallery owners, teaches and aides, 76 Bremerton-area school children and Our Lady Star of the Sea entered the second annual Kids Art Show, and their poster entries were featured on the First Friday Art Walk, June 7.
The entries were on display at the Amy Burnett Gallery, Fourth and Pacific and special thanks go to long time art supporter Amy Burnett and Angela Perryman, owner of Claywerks.
The theme for this year’s show was inspired by award winning artist Shen Stewart.
I attended a preview of this show expecting to see drawings and paintings of bears and tents and perhaps other normal stereotypes of camping out.
If I could find one word to describe all these 76 entries, it would be “family.” So many of these children saw camping as a family activity, and many of them took their pets ‑ mostly dogs ‑ along with them. They seem to see the outdoors as benign and friendly, sunny and inviting.
If I could offer one editorial comment about this art show, I was shocked, dismayed, disappointed, a bit embarrassed to discover most children in Bremerton elementary schools receive no formal art curriculum. Our children are not receiving any formal art, and presumably, music, training. No painting, no writing, no poetry, no encouragement for artistic self-expression.
Surely we can do better.
If children in Bremerton discover art, it comes through the efforts of people like Julie Cooper who helped coordinate the show and to the teachers and staff, parents and teacher aides along with the sponsors, Windermere Foundation, Pacific Northwest Title, The Kitsap Friends of Children’s Guild, Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent and Bremerton City Council President Greg Wheeler.
Without them, all working together and encouraging these children, buying supplies and coming up with prizes, we’d be looking at blank walls. It takes a village to bring art to children.
I wandered through the gallery, looking at the painted mountains and sunsets, rivers and lakes, tents and trees (so many trees in so many paintings!) and kept returning to one painting ‑not among the winners ‑ and decided one of the beauties of art is that everyone can have a different favorite.
So I selected a particularly bright, primary colors aplenty entry by Elizabeth Buskark from Naval Avenue Elementary as my “winner.” Elizabeth is in the Early Learning Center and Mrs. Bottis is her teacher.
I noted that Elizabeth used strong colors and I felt like she had really been camping in the location she painted. Her love of the outdoors shined through.
Windermere Foundation funded the prizes ‑ money to buy art kits for the winners.
Here are the winning poster entries:
Division 1-Elementary School Grades K-1 ‑ 1. Kenedee Dodd; 2. Ellie Jenkins; 3. Joshua Turner.
Division 2-Elementary School Grades 2-3 – 1. Sarah Beaumont; 2. Isabella Van Hollebeke; 3. Malae Ellington.
Division 3-Elementary School Grades 4-5 – 1. Summit Geiselman; 2. Suzanna Gill; 3. Madison Olmstead.
Good for them and good for our local community for supporting arts. If your child wants to get a jump-start on next year’s poster contest the theme is “A Day at The Fair.”
Happy trails.