Included in the Young Artists show will be artwork from the following Summer Grant recipients, who studied visual arts during their summer program.
Emily Giarrano
Emily Giarrano was born on December 27, 1994 and is currently a junior at Shepaug Valley High School. She has pursued art for her entire life and has attended ASAP classes since the age of eight. Thanks to the ASAP Summer Grant Program she was able to attend a four-week pre-college program at the Massachusetts College of Art, where she studied painting, drawing, and jewelry. Emily has been attending several art demos and life drawing sessions at the Washington Art Association prior to and after attending Mass Art. Emily has already appeared in three gallery openings, two at W.A.A. and the other at the Sloan Fine Art Gallery in New York City.
Ian McConnell
Ian McConnell is an art student from Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, CT. Ian’s love for art goes further than the classroom. He brought it to Maryland Institute College of Art pre-college program of 2011. The After School Arts Program was kind enough to fund most of the tuition to this amazing experience that would not have been possible without their help. Ian took a core class in drawing and painting the figure in acrylics and a workshop in dark room photography. Ian hopes that in the fall of 2012 he will be able to attend MICA’s full, four-year college program.
Jenna O’Dell
Jenna O’Dell is a senior at Wamogo Regional High School in Litchfield. Jenna is pursing her passion in music, singing, playing the ukulele, piano and guitar. Jenna has attended several years at the Warner Theatre for voice lessons and attended their summer programs. She is also one of the lead vocalists in her high school choral group. She also pursues rowing and was awarded the Coaches Award. With the help of ASAP she attended Buck’s Rock Performing and Creative Art’s Camp where she was inspired to explore different aspects of art. Along with performing, she was able to explore flame working/glassblowing, batik making, sewing, digital photography, culinary arts, metal smithing, weaving and much more. Jenna plans on applying to different schools to study music education.
Erik Saalmuller
Erik Saalmuller is a junior at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, Connecticut. Never without a pencil in hand to sketch a thought on paper, he signed up for the Foundation Arts program at the beginning of his freshman year. His love for art was brought to new dimensions in that year. Nonnewaug’s art teacher, Mrs. Leeza Desjardins, taught him to incorporate proper art techniques such as values, color charts, and time management in order to create and present a finished art piece. Erik’s first assignment was to do a self-portrait that would later be used with a before-and-after comparison. This would allow him to see and recognize his growing potential. Mrs. Desjardins encouraged Erik to submit artwork in the Bethlehem Fair in September of 2010, where he placed first on his acrylic painting and third place on a pencil still life drawing. Academically, Erik is currently in the top ten percent of his class and holds the elected position of Parliamentarian in the National Art Honor Society. Determined to pursue a career in art, he applied to ASAP’s Summer Grant Program in the spring of 2011. Erik was awarded a scholarship to attend Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) 2011 Summer Program in Architecture.
Taylor Walsh
Taylor Walsh is a senior at Shepaug Valley High School in Washington. She has a family history of artists and has been pursuing art for years. She has been taking ASAP classes since early elementary school and has progressed immensely because of them. She has been in AP Art every year since her sophomore year of High School and received an award for excellence in Drawing. Over the last summer she attended the Pre-College program at Monserrat College of art, taking Foundation, Illustration, and Painting, all thanks to a grant from ASAP.