Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/686133
Around School Arts The Gift of Art As a sophomore at Latin, Edward Hardman '12 took the Painting Studio class. One of his final assignments was to participate in the Memory Project by painting a portrait of Fred, a boy who lives in Africa, so that Fred could have a special memento from his childhood. Hardman liked the task so well that he asked art teacher Christine Holloway if he could join the class for the Memory Project again his junior and senior years. "Portraiture is something that I have a lot of fun doing," Hardman said. "I enjoy the challenge of using color and value to depict a likeness. With the Memory Project, the painting ends up being more than just a work of art. e person it is for will cherish it and feel special, knowing someone painted it for them. at's beautiful in itself." Hardman still remembers the elation he felt when he received a photo of a grinning Fred holding his portrait months after the class ended. is winter marked the 10th year Holloway's class has participated in the Memory Project, a nonprofit organization that invites art students to paint portraits of children who are served by global charities. e mission of the program is to help these children, most of whom live in extreme poverty, feel valued and important and to provide them with something that many don't have: an image of themselves from childhood. Since 2004, the Memory Project has gifted more than 80,000 portraits to children in 35 countries. Holloway stumbled across the Memory Project while searching for service opportunities for her students. "I was attracted to the idea of giving a little more purpose to traditional portraiture, to make it more meaningful for students," she said. "It allows us to do service that is directly related to our curriculum." Painting Studio introduces students to a range of materials and approaches, with portraiture being one of the more challenging units near the end of the course. Students learn to mix flesh tones, build form and have their figure look like it has weight. Every year, Holloway asks the Memory Project to send her photos of children to be painted. As the course does not include a drawing component, students trace the image with the help of a projector. Using Photoshop, they reduce the countless color variations of the photo to a certain number of colors they can work with. Around School 18