Art students helping The Courier News get out the news
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Anderson County High School art students, from left, Rheagan Bannach, Jordan Fall, and Daeci King stand by their work. - Ken Leinart
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n this case a coin box they and fellow student Shelly Spradlin (not pictured) designed and painted for The Courier News. - Ken Leinart
Our newspaper coin racks are getting a new look.
Art students from Anderson County and Clinton high schools were asked to help us in this undertaking.
The teachers were willing — enthusiastically so — and the students were, too.
Once they got it into it.
“We weren’t sure what we were going to do at first,” said Jordan Fall, one of four Anderson County High School students who did the actual painting on the boxes. “There were a lot of things to consider.”
Such as color, presentation, and how to do something that looked “really cool.”
Daeci King, another artist who took part in the project, said it was a collective effort from the four to come up with, “something that would catch the eye.”
“I think it was Jordan’s idea,” said King. “But it was like, ‘Yeah, that would work.’”
What the ACHS students chose was a collection of “famous” paintings — ones that had touched them in some way.
Some of the images are easily recognizable, even to uninformed art lovers like me. Others, not so much — or at least to some of us.
“Do you recognize this,” King said as she touched a piece of work on the top of the coin box, near the coin mechanism.
Let’s see … Isn’t that …
“No,” came the reply.
“That’s from SpongeBob SquarePants!” she said, laughing. “We wanted something fun.”
King said that idea came from Shelly Spradlin, another of the artists. While ACHS art teacher Kevin Tucker worried about how to get 20-something art students involved in one project that was, to be honest, limited in scope, he said he chose four students and put them at it.
But nobody in the class, it seems, felt left out. The project seemed to draw the interest of everyone. And it was a learning experience.
“It really helped with my technique,” Fall said. “I learned a lot about my painting.”
As for King, her knowledge gained was less “art” and more “curiosity,” she said. “I learned how a coin box works. I never really used one before, so that was neat.”
King also learned that there is ample space in a newspaper coin box to hide, in case you ever want to hide in a newspaper coin box.
Clinton High School also received a box to do with what the art students wanted. But in 2020, nothing has been easy, and COVID oftentimes derail plans and timetables.
When Clinton students have their work ready, we hope they will be as excited about it as we will be.
The ACHS box will be placed in a prominent location in Clinton — as will the box from Clinton High School..
The Courier News likes to report on athletic and academic achievements in the community, and now we get the chance to not just report on the artistic achievements of students, but give them a chance to show off their work to everybody.
