Students quietly scattered around the Meridian Museum of Art Friday to see the paintings and sculptures of notable artists, but also to see their own work they completed in classes at Clarkdale Elementary.

 

Thanks to a generous mini-grant from the Junior Auxiliary of Meridian, the sixth graders completed artistic projects that ended up on display at the museum for all to see. With the art showcase wrapping up Saturday, the students had traveled Friday to take a peek at their work.

 

Carter Rawson, 12, was one excited artist at the show. He had created his piece called “Not Everything is Trash.”

 

Composed using cardboard, spray paint, found objects and glue, he based his work on the element of “texture.” Carter was inspired after his teacher showed him a textured artwork based on artist Louise Nevelson’s work. Intrigued, Carter worked to create something that would remind viewers that you can make anything out of everything.

 

“When we were preparing to do this, Ms. Nester showed us some art, and I wanted to try to show that everything is trash at the end of the day,” Rawson said. “That means anything can be art. You can use anything to make art.”

 

Teacher Allison Nester brought the idea of the art project from a school she worked at before. However, she was told there she couldn’t do the project again “because it’s not on the state test.” That inspired – and fired up – this creative teacher to try this project at Lauderdale County School District, but make it more involved.

 

“The students started with research stations, where they researched each of the seven elements of art,” Nester said. “They picked one element that interested them, then used research-based strategies to find out more. They then made an outline, composed their research and practiced oral communication about the piece. They then made their artwork. It was a very, very in-depth process.”

 

Nester’s visit to Asheville, N.C., reignited her love of art, which led to the recent installation. She visited the River Arts District’s studio, Riverview Station, and fell in love with the atmosphere.

 

“Artists there were creating art using natural elements,” she said. “But three months to the day after I visited, the flooding happened and most of the art was lost [at the studio]. The studio was flooded all the way to the second floor.

 

“So, we dedicated this installation to the artists there.”

 

Each artwork had a label of the artist’s name and a brief summary of the artist’s projects. Every artwork carried a QR code that led to a website with more information about the creation of the piece of art.