Throughout the halls of the Performing Arts Center portraits based on photos decorate the walls as a telltale sign of the artistry found at Wilsonville High School.
The project, nicknamed Squinty Squinty, was worked on by students for months as they filled the empty space of a large canvas.
Alannys Townsend explains the project: “The main objective was to be value mapping, kind of squinting your eyes and seeing where darker and lighter shades are in the painting.”
An angry red portrait depicts a grumpy two-year-old, Townsend’s younger self, on the way to attend a wedding with a permanent frown sketched on her face. Titled “Am I Letting Her Down,” Townsend’s piece introduces a bit of fiction into her realistic portrait. A sparkle of light surrounds her eye, and red orbs hover around her person.
Ms. Escobar had tasked the students with attempting a more nostalgic feel. Reliving old memories was challenging, “I didn’t have the best childhood, and growing up was difficult because I’m adopted.” Townsend wanted this feeling to preside in the painting, a comparison of old and new, “So, I took the star in the middle and I zoomed in on a picture of my eye now. So, the picture you see inside the little star is me now and the rest of it is little me.”
The spheres floating are representative of faces, “when you start drawing a portrait you usually start with a circle and a guideline in the middle for where the eyelines going to be. I didn’t want to draw a bunch of portraits in the background, so, what I did was add some kind of version of people looking away.”
Found on each side, sans the bottom, song titles litter the canvas cloth. Portraying different emotions felt throughout the creative process, the songs sit on a playlist she listened to throughout creating.
Joslin Jones took a different approach: “I wasn’t feeling connected to any of the photos of people that I had selected, so I decided to choose a photo of my elderly dog wearing a hat.”
Indiana Jones, nicknamed Indy, sports a fedora decorated with blossoms. Staring directly into the camera’s lens he sits patiently, posing for the shot.
The portrait has no title, labeled as “Untitled.” Jones explains, “I didn’t want to convey any specific emotion with it. I just wanted to create a memory, and that’s also why it’s one of, if not the only, painting in full grayscale.”
The paintings were worked on for roughly two and a half months. Students worked within the art room and pop-up studios craft together in hallways, painting every class until masterpieces became clearly known.