BRUNSWICK

Ice cream wasn’t the only sweet treat at the Brunswick Junior High School’s Art Scoop, an annual event hosted by the school’s art program to showcase the artwork of sixth, seventh and eighth grade students.

Eighth grader Alexa Lively created a colorful sculpture depicting coral and underwater sea creatures made entirely out of candy.

“I melted isomalt sugar and Jolly Ranchers and poured them into ice to make them into coral,” she explained.

Lively said the underwater scene was inspired by her love of snorkeling and swimming with sea turtles and fish while vacationing with her parents. She estimated that the sculpture took about eight hours to complete.

“I was also really excited when I realized I could make something edible,” she added with a smile.

Art teacher Cory Bucknam, who organized last Friday’s event, said it was “a very lively and varied art show,” as students were allowed to choose what artwork they wanted to display, which varied from assigned projects to independent pieces.

“We really want to encourage them,” she said. “Even when we teach them skills and techniques and how to use materials, we really want them to use them in their own way.”

Bucknam added that she was “floored” by the talent that she had witnessed from her students this year.

“They are really amazing. There are some kids who are talented at such a young age,” she said. “It’s really the best of both worlds, and I really get all of the ability span, which is a lot of fun as a teacher. Especially as I see them grow and improve.”

The hallways at the junior high overflowed with a mixture of artistic pieces, ranging from oil pastels, pencil drawings, cardboard structures, clay bobble heads to digital art and more. Even self-portraits were pursued through several different mediums, such as masks that symbolized a student’s personality and character or “selfies” that were made out of clay.

This year, eighth graders were also encouraged to create a piece of art inspired by a famous artist, including Andy Warhol, John James Audubon and local artist John Bisbee, who inspired several unique spiked or nail embedded art pieces at the show.

Lively’s sugary piece was also based on the work of Dale Chihuly who specializes in glass sculptures and chandeliers, which Lively had the chance to see firsthand in Atlantis.

Julianna Gamage, also an eighth grader, created a three-dimensional fairy house, which was modeled after “The Church of Auvers,” an oil painting by Vincent Van Gogh, and wrote an essay describing why she chose to focus on this particular piece.

Other students also wrote paragraphs about why they chose certain pieces of their art for the show, which incorporates “a lot more writing and thinking into their artwork,” according to Bucknam.

At the event, visitors were also given Post-It notes and pencils so they could post messages to the artists beside the pieces of art they enjoyed the most. Students could also create necklaces and decorate mini garden pots at the arts and crafts station, an addition to the event that was added last year.

Bucknam said that she appreciates the school administrators for supporting the art program and letting it grow, as “that’s not the the case in all schools.”

Since art is the only “hands on” class at the school, ever since the school’s technical education program dissolved, Bucknam said students have the opportunity to express themselves the most through art class.

“They can have a lot more choice in how they use their voice,” she said.

This is all the more exemplified through Art Scoop, and Bucknam was especially excited to show off what her students had accomplished this year.

“This is a great year, and I’m really proud of our kids,” she said.