Shaw’s Final Project
May 8th, 2007As promised, here’s Tim’s entry on the Cindy Sherman portrait session with Shaw….(Rachel):
We wrapped up this year’s collaboration with Shaw Elementary V.P.A. with a final project. Historical portraits a la Cindy Sherman. Each student had selected a portrait from art history texts that they decided they wanted to emulate and we assisted them in finding appropriate costuming and props (the St. Louis Repertory Theater helped greatly with this). The photo shoot was done at the building Shaw is using during renovations of their school. We attempted to approximate the backgrounds in the original paintings, at least in style, applied make-up and manipulated lighting to aid in the illusions. What a huge amount of fun this turned out to be.
Our gallery assistants, Courtney, Amy, and Katy did amazing things with the costuming, hair and make-up while Natalee created magic with her camera. Special kudos must be given to Reba from the Rep’s costume rental facility, she not only used an expert eye to find just the right clothes, wigs, jewelry, etc. but also brought her make-up kit and formidable abilities that were invaluable. Another assisting in this team effort was Gavin who “made-do” with whatever was at hand to create sets and assist Natalee’s efforts.There was a feeling that we were doing something amazing the entire time. Even the channel 9 film crew were swept up into the theatrical nature of this activity, staying much longer than originally planned.
These portraits along with other student projects from both St. Michaels’ School and Shaw V.P.A. will be on display for a one night gala opening at the Bruno David Gallery on Tuesday, May 22nd from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. You’ll have to come to the event to see the final product, but here’s a photo of the one of the portraits being taken and the set-up….
