Kids & Families

Young artists get personal

The old adage “every picture tells a story” is apropos of North Toronto CI’s senior art class.

Members of Lise Marquis’ Grade 12 visual arts class opened their thought processes along with their paintings and sculptures to the neighbourhood for viewing in a May 18–28 art show, From The Mouths of Babes. Some of the pieces were available for sale.

The title and concept of the show was suggested by student Hannah Karpinski, and it was voted on by the 25 students in the class.

Those classmates were split into three teams — curatorial, PR and installation — to take care of the promotion, development and
construction of the gallery.

Gisele Chen, who was a part of curatorial team, and Samara Goldberg, part of the installation team, took the Town Crier on a tour of the gallery which took up two rooms on the second floor of the Yonge and Broadway-area school.

Chen chose internal struggle, and substance abuse, as the theme for her paintings. Goldberg worked with the idea of nightmares, adding her best friend, Olivia Wise — the teen who caught pop singer Katy Perry’s ear when she sang the chanteuse’s hit, “Roar” — died in November.

The idea of nightmares stemmed from Goldberg’s fear of forgetting about her friend, she said.

Both Chen and Goldberg said they loved the idea of having a New York City-style launch.

“The gallery was so formal, and then we had a joke about ‘No shrimp, no show’,” Chen said, with a laugh. “We’re a big family.”

Marquis beamed at the work done by her class, commenting on the talents that have passed through her classes since she began at North Toronto in 1989.

“I get to see them come in with very nascent skills, and lots of interest, and they grow into very free-thinking individuals — expressive, lots to say — and taking risks and jumping off from here to their post-secondary studies,” she said. “It’s exciting to see them bloom as humans.”

A handful of students, including Zack Bryson and Yoni Rohn-Pascal, will be pursuing visual arts upon graduation.

Other students taking part were Gina Amin, Ema Asler, Megha Banerjee, Krista Barleta, Ling Bi, Darci Brill, Lauren D’Angelo, Jessica Dias, Joseph Eiles, Maris Ellliot, Hannah Ewen, Stefanie Ivkovic, Antoinette Liu, Ana Lantos, Sarah Morgan, Anisija Nojkova, Laura Pitt, Tina Siassi, Miko Sramek and Abigail Thorson.