One of the driving themes of One River is to celebrate living artists. When we’re able to connect artists who we personally know with our curriculum, it brings everything full circle for me.
This Friday we are mounting a two-school exhibition at the Garden State Plaza with work that is inspired by Shara Hughes. We showed Shara’s work last year, and she has recently gone on to become a darling of the art world. Notwithstanding Shara’s success, she is such a fantastic person and her playful landscapes make for a wonderful lesson for our teen students. We are continuing to raise the bar in our classrooms, while also creating a greater understanding for what contemporary art is all about.
It is my contention that our students should not copy what artists before them produced. However, much like the Beatles influenced U2 and U2 influenced Radiohead, there is a clear style that is transferred over time around visual art. I am guessing that Shara may have been influenced by Burchfield and Hockney. Its without question that Shara is a great influence for over 100 teens who participated in this project at our two schools in New Jersey.
Loving what we do on this Monday.
Matt Ross
Founder
#MondayThoughts #OneRiverSchool #SharaHughes
matt@oneriverschool.com
Image Credit: (left) Jillian Height, 14-year old One River School Allendale student (right) Rolling With It, Shara Hughes
