Former OHLSD art teacher, Stacie Kearns, is currently working on a project to help show our health care workers some love called “Hearts for Hope”. Stacie’s mission as an artist is to spread LOVE, JOY, HOPE, and HEALING through the power of art and she is encouraging people to create a heart with the word hope on it and share it. Her goal is to put them all into a collaborative video to share with hospitals and health care workers and she is reaching out to art teachers and teachers to assign this project with their students and be in charge of compiling their heart art into a single image/images that could be turned into a video.

Some of the students at Oak Hills High School and Oakdale Elementary have been busy creating works to contribute to the cause! Spread the word! Let’s make a difference! #hearts4hope

“Celebrating Art” is devoted to the promotion and appreciation of student art. The intent of their student art contest is to motivate student artists. The top entries are published in an anthology that will record the creative works of today’s student artists.

Students recently submitted work and 36 OHHS Art and Design were invited to be published in the Spring 2020 “Celebrating Art”!  Only the best art is selected to be included in the full-color hardbound art book, “Celebrating Art”. Additionally, final judging for “Top Ten Artist” and “High Merit Artist” awards will be completed and announced soon. The following students should feel honored. This is not a contest where every entry is invited to be published and is a highly selective competition. Thousands of entries were not invited to be published. Being published represents a lot of talent, hard work, and dedication from students.

Congratulations to the following students:

From Ambs’ Art Foundations classes:

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Gabriel Byrne
Olivia Burnett
Gavin Bintz
Kaelyn Kammerer
Savannah Myers
Jake West

From Dignan-Cummins’ Sculpture; Fiber Arts; Ceramics; Enamels, Mosaics and Glass; and Studio Art AP 3D Design classes: 

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Ashley Urk
Becca Jones
Bricklin Gibbs
Carly Shiplett
Elise Schamer
Elizabeth Pangburn
Sammie Gerde
Jenna Guthier
Katie Wooddell
Maddie Cain
Madison Kemplin
Sami Hoffman

From Gibson’s Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator classes: 

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Jordan Burke
Jackson Harrison
Matthew Hodges

From Schorsch’s Drawing and Printmaking and Studio Art AP 2D Design and Drawing classes: 

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Mikki Allen
Alaina Broughton
Sydney Cantrell
Brooklyn Hart
Alexis Hetzel
Chloe Howie
Rebecca Kaiser
Lily Lang
Alyssa McRobert
Cailee Plunkett
Mayson Reperowitz
Emma Sedlack
Destanie Sexton
Mackenzie Sexton
William Weinheimer

OHHS senior Taylor Glover created a powerful documentary for Mrs. Gibson’s Video Technology class about her impact of the COVID-19 on the lives of community members.

In the planning of her documentary, Taylor wanted to focus on publicizing. Taylor stated, “It will show the viewers an inside look at the topic and make certain details known. It’s going to spread awareness on the topic. The subject matter of my documentary is how the coronavirus is affecting Cincinnati. Since this is a very strange time we are living in, I thought it would be cool to document the experiences we are having during this time. I’m going to try my best to record how we are dealing with coronavirus locally, to show an inside look at how our area is feeling and what we are doing”.

Taylor focused on the effect of the first pandemic in 100 years on Cincinnati, more specifically Hamilton County, and how people in her hometown are dealing with the Coronavirus. She worked to give a personal, detailed, twist on the telling of the events and interviewed other’s to gain their perspectives and discuss their experiences. All interviews were conducted online which further demonstrates how the Coronavirus has affected our society directly.  In conducting her interviews, Taylor asked her subjects to consider the following items that are currently on many people’s minds:

How have you been feeling on this stay at home order?
How have you been coping with it?
How long do you think this will last?
Are you hopeful about the future?
What have you been doing to keep life as normal as possible?
How are you staying connected with everyone?
How has COVID-19 affected you personally and professionally?
It’ll add personality to the documentary.

Throughout her composition of the documentary, Taylor considered the use of a variety of long, medium, and close up angles to keep the audience engaged and used tripods, cameras, and lighting to create a professional grade product. She considered the use of close-ups to create drama, medium shots for interviews, and long shots for landscapes. Taylor emphasized that for interviews in-person “they won’t be as close up because I wanna show through the filming that we have to stay 6 ft apart”.

It’s Raining Barrels!

The Rain Barrel Art Project was created to promote the use of rain barrels throughout the Ohio River Valley area through a creative and educational medium. The Rain Barrel Art Project desires to educate people on environmental issues like stormwater runoff, watersheds and water conservation.

Rain barrels continue to grow in popularity across the country. However, one of its biggest drawbacks is their dull appearance. Some people are less likely to use them given their negative aesthetic impact on residential and commercial landscaping, even though they conserve water and save money. The “Save Local Waters” initiative believes that producing beautiful artistic rain barrels that have unique painted details will make them more desirable and naturally increase interest to promote their use.

This year, Ms. Kopf’s Painting and Mixed Media students created 3 Rain Barrels for the event. The effects of COVID-19 impacted the original display and auction dates that would have taken place today…but the event will still go on with the following revised dates!

The Rain Barrels will be on display at the Cincinnati Zoo from July 1st-28th and the online auction will take place from July 18th-28th. On July 28th all auctions will be final and an Artist Reception will take place at the Twilight Tuesday event.

Planting Peace

The Painting and Mixed Media students have been busy this year! In addition to the Save Local Waters Rain Barrels, students have been hard at work preparing flower pots for the Christ Hospital Guild and a special grant project. Be on the lookout for the finished products in the future!