Publication Date: Friday, November 04, 2005
Artists and scholars
Artists and scholars
(November 04, 2005) Three teenagers show their painting, photography and other works of art at Palo Alto Art Center
by Marge Speidel
Paintings, glass vases, sculptures, and small bronze pieces line the walls and shelves of Rachel Freier-Miller's living room. They're all her creations.
These days, Freier-Miller's artwork is also on display at the Palo Alto Art Center. The 17-year-old Palo Alto High School student has joined with fellow artists and students Laura Klinestiver and Elizabet Warshaw-Vickery to take part in a youth art show titled "The Creative Soul."
All three are recipients of the Carrie Abramovitz Scholarship, a one- or two-year program that gives them an artist mentor and a $1,500 stipend per year to use for such arts-related purposes as art materials or trips to galleries and museums.
The scholarship honors the memory of Carrie Abramovitz, a well-known local sculptor who died in 1999. Donors from the Art Center Foundation help support it, said Larnie Fox, an artist and the director of children's fine arts at the center.
"We've had some great success stories," he said. "Students have gone on to study at the California College of the Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design."
The students are also traveling different artistic paths. Freier-Miller's work includes a box lined with bottles -- her impression of a city -- that was inspired by assemblage artist Joseph Cornell. Meanwhile, Klinestiver, 16, paints, sculpts clay and works in multimedia. Warshaw-Vickery, who says she is "pretty passionate about photography," also does watercolors and chalk drawings.
"I think the scholarship is an amazing opportunity not only to provide materials for our work, but to give us a chance to embellish our style and to interact with others who are passionate about the same subject," said Warshaw-Vickery, whose mentor is photographer Jessamyn Lovell.
Warshaw-Vickery is a senior at Paly at age of 15. "I skipped a couple of grades," she admitted. She will show about 30 pieces in the exhibit, the majority being black-and-white photos. A dramatic shot of a young girl looking through a tall, metal fence was taken in San Francisco's Chinatown, a favorite site for her work. She is also interested in portraying mannequins in store windows.
Warshaw-Vickery's watercolors sometimes originate with an illustration from a biology textbook. She sells her art and photographs for the benefit of The Future Brain Cancer Institute, a Palo Alto-based research and public-awareness organization she and her mother founded when her father died of brain cancer three years ago.
Freier-Miller's mentor is Barbara Leventhal-Stern, a local printmaker and painter. "We've gone to museums, taken classes and made wood prints together, and she has demonstrated fine points of the color wheel at her home," she said.
One part of Freier-Miller's exhibit honors the memory of Polly Klaas, the young Petaluma girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1993. Freier-Miller's stepfather is related to the Klaas family.
"My stepdad was like an uncle to Polly Klaas, and I was deeply affected by what happened to her," Freier-Miller said. "Right off when I got the scholarship I knew what I wanted to do -- a series on her life and how she affected the world."
The series begins with a portrait of Polly in profile as she might have looked today. "I painted her as very pale and naked, to give a vulnerable look," Freier-Miller said. "The other paintings I did from photographs from her family. They show her at different points in her short life."
(Freier-Miller was written about in the Oct. 19 Weekly as a fund-raiser for Camp Anytown, a retreat for high-school students near Boulder Creek that fights intolerance through advocacy and education.)
Klinestiver is showing a group of acrylic paintings in neutrals and blues inspired by the cubist style of Picasso. Another of her works, a free-standing sculpture, shows two figures in profile, one standing and one lightly reclining.
Her mentor is Elizabeth Saltos, who creates public art, including sculpture. "I've really enjoyed the mentor experience," Klinestiver said. "She has advised me on color and given help in my multimedia work. The scholarship has allowed me to enroll in classes I wouldn't have been able to take."
For her the most valuable part has been that she's "really learned how to look at something and observe it, and learned how to paint it, instead of just creating something out of my own mind."
Other young artists can take note: The Art Center is looking for candidates for the next round of the scholarship. Applicants should be in 10th or 11th grade and living or attending school in Palo Alto or East Palo Alto. Dec. 6 is the deadline for applying for the next term, which begins in January 2006 and ends in December 2006.
What: "The Creative Soul" Youth Art Show, works of Carrie Abramovitz Scholarship artists.
Where: Palo Alto Art Center, 1313 Newell Road.
When: Through Nov. 18. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 7 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Cost: The exhibit is free.
Info: Call 329-2122 or go to www.cityofpaloalto.org and click on "Art Center" under "Featured Sites."
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