Tag Archives: painting

OHHS Art and Design Community Collaboration Brings New Mural to Life at The Wellington

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A year-long collaboration between the OHHS Art and Design Department and The Wellington at North Bend Crossing has culminated in the completion of a beautiful new mural that will welcome residents and visitors to the Vista building for years to come.

The project began during the summer of 2025 when The Wellington at North Bend Crossing sponsored an open mural design contest. Students in Ms. Kopf’s Painting and Public Art classes were invited to submit original mural concepts, providing them with the opportunity to create artwork for a meaningful community space. After reviewing several outstanding student submissions, residents of The Wellington selected the winning design created by junior Sona Sougoule. Her vibrant concept served as the inspiration for the final mural, showcasing both her artistic vision and creativity.

Once the design was selected, students began preparing the wall in April 2026. Over the course of several months, the Painting and Public Art classes worked together to transfer, paint, and complete the large-scale mural. Through careful planning, teamwork, and countless hours of painting, the students transformed an ordinary wall into a colorful work of public art that reflects the spirit of community and creativity.

The Wellington celebrated the project’s completion with the following message on its Facebook page:

“We are thrilled to share that the mural at our Vista building is now complete! What began as an incredible vision has become a beautiful work of art that will brighten our community for years to come. We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the talented students in the Painting and Public Art Class at Oak Hills High School, led by Miss Kristy Kopf, for bringing this project to life.

A special congratulations once again to junior Sona Sougoule, whose winning design inspired this amazing mural. Your creativity, dedication, and talent have left a lasting impact on our residents, families, and team.

Projects like this remind us of the power of community partnerships and the joy that art can bring across generations. Thank you to everyone who made this collaboration possible—we couldn’t be more grateful!”

This project is a wonderful example of how public art can bring people together while providing students with authentic, real-world artistic experiences. The OHHS Art and Design Department is incredibly proud of Sona Sougoule and every student in the Painting and Public Art classes whose hard work, dedication, and collaboration made this mural possible. We are grateful to The Wellington at North Bend Crossing for creating this opportunity and for partnering with our students. We look forward to seeing the mural continue to brighten the lives of residents and visitors for many years to come.

Wayfarers: An OHHS Art and Design Fotofocus Exhibition in Partnership with the Delhi Event Center!

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Each Biennial, FotoFocus is structured around a unifying theme. The 2026 Biennial theme, The Long View, considers aspects of time and perspective in photography and film, and how these mediums shape our understanding of the world. “The long view” is a phrase used to invoke a broader perspective. It suggests both distance and duration, i.e., looking far into the distance and/or looking for a long period of time. The Long View acknowledges the semiquincentennial of the United States, encouraging a posture of reflection in regards to the grand sweep of our country’s history, its past, present, and future. Photography can show us many moments from that history but it can also serve as a metaphor for how we understand our past and decide to shape it over time.

As a part of this year’s FotoFocus Biennial, OHHS Art and Design Photography alumni will be exhibiting alongside their former teacher, Steve Groh, in the Wayfarers exhibition at Delhi Event Center. The exhibition theme and title, wayfarer, defines a person who travels, especially on foot. The term is often used in a literary or poetic sense to describe someone who goes on long, wandering journeys, embracing the freedom and unpredictability of life on the road.

Groh will be co-curating the exhibition with alumnus Hannah Knight (2018). The exhibition will feature a photograph that represents an earlier point in photographic journeys, and another that represents where individuals are now, along with a pair of shoes that somehow represents the journey through life. As an official part of the FotoFocus Biennial, the exhibition opening will include a brief educational component in the form of artist talks. Jamie Schorsch, OHHS Art and Design Department Chair, photography teacher Steve Groh, and definitely be speaking, and Hannah Knight will be featured speakers with additional alumni contributing to discussion throughout the event.

Mark your calendars now for the exhibition opening at the Delhi Event Center:

Wayfarers Opening Reception
Sunday, October 4
1:00–3:00 p.m.

Spring 2026 “Celebrating Art” OHHS Art and Design Students to Be Published

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“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 78 OHHS Art and Design students were invited to be published in the Spring 2026 “Celebrating Art”!  Only the best art is selected to be included in the full-color hardbound art book, “Celebrating Art”. Additionally, final judging for the “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’ Ceramics 2 and Studio Art Foundations classes:
Addyson Dennis
Eva Etris-Schuler
Grace Marcus
Hannah Roellig
Josie Hollander
Lizz Price
Moriah Pree
Olivia Lucas
Ryleigh Brader
Sofia Segoviano
Sydney Abercrombie
Ultan Delaney
Audree Cartmell
Bianca Bacher
Eleanor Good
Kailee Miller
Logan Hart
Sam Dew
Sundai Harper
Avery Goettke
Evelyn Good
Leigha Aday

From Dignan-Cummins’ Ceramics 1, Honors Enamels, Mosaic, and Glass, Honors Fiber Arts, Sculpture, and AP Art 3D Design classes:
Amara Ferguson
Anastasia Brantley
Marina Sek
Logan Rehn
Abbey Burst
Ava Wilson
Charles Elam
Chloe Kelley
Kita Kohlbrandt
Lexi Holzbacher
Lilah June Morgan
Maeghan Zimmerly
Megan Schmidt
Nathan Niehaus
Sam Getz
Ahleya Velasco
Charlie Morehead
Eva Duke-ibanez
Evelyn Dann
JT Schmidt
Leo Ruthven
Maggie Heydorn
Morgan Sargent
Rachael Wunderlich
Sophia Flaig
Sumira Kessler

From Kopf’s Art Foundations, Digital Art Foundations, and Painting and Public Art classes:
Elijah Gifford
Liam Maloney
Sophia Gray
Chelsea Crider
Dylan Johnson
Jaylin Hill
Lily Ann Gunnarson
Alexandra See
Lillianna McGuire

From Schorsch’s Drawing and Printmaking, Studio Art Foundations, and AP Art and Design 2D Design and Drawing classes: 
Anna Schuler
Ava Kaiser
Carly Gibbs
Eli Wilson
Gaby Coronado Orozco
Julia Chapman
Liam Edenfield
Liliana Pisegna
Madaline Smith
Nathan Muhlen
Tym’Shay Akins
Cynthia Brown
Desmond Damon
Grace Abrams
Lennox Ludeman
Belle Kirby
Sarah Sieve
Evelyn Mendez-Coronado
Jocelyn Lawrence
Maria Arrivillaga Munoz
Maria Pitchford

From Inspiration to Exhibition: AP Art Students Engage with Gee Horton at the Contemporary Arts Center

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A recent visit to the Contemporary Arts Center provided AP Art and Design students with an exceptional opportunity to engage directly with Gee Horton while experiencing his exhibition, Chapter 4: In Another Lifetime. The visit moved beyond observation, offering students insight into both the conceptual depth of Horton’s work and the lived experience of a practicing artist.

Spanning two galleries, the exhibition continues Horton’s evolving body of work through large-scale photorealistic drawings, photography, collage, video, and installation. His exploration of generational memory, childhood, and the navigation of grief and loss, invites viewers to examine the tension between safety and vulnerability, and how these forces shape identity. Building on Chapter 3: Be Home Before the Streetlights…, Horton shifts from the idea of returning home to what is inherited once we arrive.

At the center of Chapter 4 is the narrative of Freeman Little, a boy living with a rare hereditary sleep disorder that produces vivid, prophetic dreams. Through this lens, Horton blurs memory, imagination, and reality, creating a space where past and present coexist. Students responded to this storytelling approach as a powerful model for embedding meaning and narrative within their own work.

Horton also shared his journey to becoming a full-time artist later in life, speaking candidly about the risks, persistence, and clarity that accompanied that transition. His perspective challenged students to think more expansively about creative careers and reinforced that artistic paths are often nonlinear.

The visual impact of Horton’s exhibition, particularly his graphite and cyanotype works, immersive assemblages, and symbolic imagery, deepened students’ understanding of how material and scale can support complex ideas. This, paired with the experience of exhibiting their own work, prompted thoughtful dialogue about intention, craftsmanship, and the role of art in communicating layered narratives.

In addition to engaging with Horton’s work, students experienced a meaningful full-circle moment by viewing their own exhibition on the CAC’s 6th floor Creativity Center gallery. The displayed works, developed through this year’s SOP (School Outreach Program) experiences, reflected individual and collective explorations of process, concept, and personal voice. Seeing their work installed in a professional gallery setting elevated the experience, encouraging students to consider presentation, audience, and context as integral parts of their practice.

Together, these experiences underscored the value of connection: between artist and audience, concept and execution, and student work and professional practice. For AP Art and Design students, the visit was not only an opportunity to learn from Gee Horton, but also to see themselves as part of a larger creative community; one where their voices, ideas, and work hold real presence and potential.

OHHS Art and Design Teacher Exhibiting in the New Women Exhibition @ CCAC

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As part of the signature programming of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center’s Nourse Gallery, CCAC is holding the third edition of “New Woman,” a juried group exhibition and accompanying fellowship for one selected artist. CCAC’s signature first-floor gallery, named for Elizabeth Nourse (one of the earliest women artists to achieve widespread recognition and make a living as a professional painter), aims to follow Nourse’s tradition by showcasing the artwork of women artists of Cincinnati and beyond, including the “New Woman” exhibition and fellowship. One winning artist will be selected from the group show for the biennial “New Woman” Fellowship at CCAC, receiving a solo exhibition and honorarium in the following year. The exhibition and fellowship together serve as a platform for recognizing and supporting the creative voices of women working across media, disciplines, and stages of their careers.

OHHS Art and Design teacher, Jamie Schorsch, was one of 55 artists selected from over 371 entries for this year’s exhibition. Schorsch’s piece, “The Heliocentric Sovereign” was selected for the exhibition alongside so many outstanding women from our region…including OHHS Art and Design alumnus Brittany Mathis and former teacher Jan Thomas!

Come out for the opening reception Friday, March 6th, from 6 – 8 pm. The exhibition will be on view through April 3rd.

The Heliocentric Sovereign: Artist Statement
“Metaphors for strength, reclamation of power, and identity populate my images focused on symbolizing resilience and the unwavering ability of the human spirit to overcome adversity, heal, and rediscover its authentic essence. The visual journeys illustrate the unraveling of the intricate tapestry of my identity, interwoven and imbued with mythological references, elements of mysticism, and spirituality, bestowing profound meaning upon events that have challenged my sense of self. In birthing the creations, they become a transformative medium, liberating me from the constraints of past experiences, societal expectations, and transcending pain that has confined me and impacted my personal journey.

The Heliocentric Sovereign merges the radiant, life-giving energy of the Sun with the confident creativity of the Queen of Wands. Cloaked in a garment patterned after solar flares, the fauna it cultivates, and crowned with a golden corona of enlightenment, the Sovereign radiates warmth and illumination. Surrounding forms turn toward this light, symbolizing the gravitational pull of hope, vitality, and renewal.

Drawing from Buddhist iconography, the figure’s raised hand forms the abhaya, the “no fear” mudra, representing courage, compassion, and spiritual awakening. This gesture conveys serenity amidst adversity and the calm assurance of inner strength. Feline imagery reinforces themes of independence and intuitive grace. Associated with solar energy, cats embody protection, self-possession, and balance between fierce vitality and quiet contemplation, mirroring the Queen of Wands’ creative fire and feminine confidence.

Marigolds, bright as miniature suns, symbolize remembrance, warmth, and transformation. Their cyclical nature honors both life and loss, reminding us that renewal is born through resilience. The inclusion of a raven deepens this meditation; its dark wings are a counterpoint to the light, representing mystery, wisdom, and the transformative power of introspection. Together, these symbols weave a dialogue between illumination and shadow, life and transcendence. The title’s scientific reference, “Heliocentric,” evokes the need for a stable inner center where one’s light endures despite life’s orbiting challenges”.