The LaBelle GroupOn Paper

Arts4All Florida proudly presents

The LaBelle Group On PaperAn exhibition resulting from the Fall 2020

visual arts residency at LaBelle High School

Susan Baldino, CuratorSandy Hill, Teaching Artist and Guest Curator

The “LaBelle Group On Paper” is a dazzling display of original works by young artists who gathered together to experiment with the versatility and expressiveness of everyday materials.

Throughout history, artists have shared ideas among their circles of artists, writers, and thinkers. Picasso joined fellow creatives at the famous Café Quatre Gats in Barcelona and later at his Paris studio. English artist Vanessa Bell along with her sister, the writer Virginia Woolf, and other writers, poets, and artists formed the Bloomsbury Group. The poet, T. S. Eliot, found camaraderie in literary friendships in London. These clusters of artists produced some of the most inventive art of their time.

Like those who came before them, the LaBelle artists in ESE teacher Augusta Ross’s class engaged in art-making in Hendry County, Florida. They learned how art is connected to historical movements. They explored different media. They practiced techniques of 20th-century luminaries Vanessa Bell, Pablo Picasso, and T.S. Eliot.

I am extremely pleased and proud of these young artists and their accomplishments. Their work is edgy and stunning, imaginative and magical.

Sandy Hill

The LaBelle artists learned about collage making during their study of Bloomsbury artist Vanessa Bell whose Portrait of Molly MacCarthy (1914-15) is thought to be the earliest example of pure collage made in England. Bell created it after she visited Picasso at his Paris studio.

The LaBelle collages were created with watercolor and tissue paper.

Jacob VelscoCollage

Collage

Stephen Gustave, CollageGoldie Mclain, Collage

Alexander Ruiz, Collage David Davis, Collage

Christopher Topper, CollageDonovan Paschall, Collage

Picasso’s Guitar, Sheet Music, and Glass of 1912 was the inspiration for a cubist collage project. The LaBelle artists assembled their own artworks using cellophane, card stock, sheet music, carboard, and construction paper. The artists personalized their collages with additional accents.

Donovan PaschallCollage II

Cubist Collage

Stephen Gustave, Collage II David Davis, Collage II

Jacob Velsco, Collage II Alexander Ruiz, Collage II

Christopher Topper, Collage II

Christopher TopperPoetry Collage

LaBelle artists discovered “erasure” or “blackout poetry,” in which an artist obscures a portion of an existing text to create a new work. They also became familiar with T.S. Eliot’s poetry anthology, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Blending inspiration from erasure poetry and Eliot, they composed innovative collages from an eclectic array of materials that ranged from beads and glitter, to newspaper and magazine clippings. The original additions even included a corsage from a local dance.

Poetry Collage

Jacob Velsco, Poetry Collage

David Davis, Poetry Collage

Goldie Mclain, Poetry Collage

To celebrate the joy of art, the LaBelle artists concluded the art residency by creating paper machemasks that incorporate Mardi Gras colors and accoutrement such as confetti and sequins.

Masks!

Donovan PaschallMask

Christopher TopperMask

David DavisMask

Stephen GustaveMask