While students traveled from class to class at WHS and the Ninth Grade Center (NGC) this week, they noticed something along the walls, ceilings, and stairs and wondered, “What the heck are these things on the walls? They look like people.” 

They do. And are. Kind of. These are actually art projects; the term used to describe them is ‘Silhouettes.’ Art I Teacher Gayle Ormon worked with NGC Art I Teacher Richard Andrews to have students create the human-sized cutouts.

 “The idea is to promote art and make it visually appealing,” Ormon said. 

Ormon’s goal for the project is to help bring student art to a public audience. If the art is only introduced to the public eye from a glass box, then they may not look at it or fully understand the meaning behind it. 

“The artwork tends to be hung up in a little display,” Ormon said. “Students tend not to look at and understand the artwork in the display.” 

It is a creation called ‘Roo Art Days’, and only a few silhouettes were done and publicized. 

Ormon’s classes also did something called Mandala art, which is originally from Tibet. However, it excludes its religious connotation. If you don’t know what Mandala Art is, it is a symbolic diagram or geometric pattern representing the universe. 

“We canvassed the whole entryway with them,” Ormom said. “Our theme was gratitude; then they had to do representations of gratitude. Then they did the silhouettes.”

The art class first made the art illustration, “And then we taught the students what an art illustration is. If you are unaware or unfamiliar with what that is, it is a visual form of art used to convey information, ideas, or narratives through images, often in print or digital media like books, magazines, advertisements or websites.”

All in all, Ormon says to the students, “Had a blast. Especially the ones who put them on the ceiling. It is all over the ninth grade center, too.”