Farm to Factory art show

On April 17, the American Academy – Castle Pines annual art show featured amazing creations by kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Inspired by pop artists Claes Oldenburg and Peter Anton who produced oversized food and candy art, the theme of this year’s show was Farm to Factory.

“This year we mixed popular culture and food. I came up with an idea to travel from a farm to a chocolate factory. The artwork was made up of many different mediums to create a blend of 2-D and 3-D pieces,” said Lead Instructor, Visual Arts, Melissa Lopez.

Guests navigated through an interactive showcase of farm and food art, concluding with a chocolate factory display. Preparing for the show, kindergarten students learned about warm and cool colors. Their designs were funny farm chickens displayed in watercolors, oil pastels and hay.

First graders learned about Fabergé eggs from Russia and then created their own eggs, delicately painted and decorated with jewels and sparkles. Finley Monroe designed his egg in his favorite color, blue, with clouds to represent a thunderstorm.

Further on the farm, guests visited the second grader’s creations: honey bees. Blended acrylic paint was used to create the honeycombs, and the students used the relief printmaking method to create the bees.

Along the tour, guests engaged in interactive activities at each stop.

Toward the end of the farm tour, food came to life with fourth grader’s silk paintings and fifth grader’s toilet paper sculptures of ice cream, pies and French fries. The final stop was the chocolate factory, featuring intricately-decorated, oversized papier-mâché chocolate boxes created by the third-grade classes.

“The art show was colorful, unique, and entertaining. There were so many realistic looking colors, food, and interesting art projects,” said fourth grader Abby.