Sterling's "Knight" of Art

By Devon Tabor

          

  Humanity has carved a very odd life for itself out of the rough-and-tumble world we were born into. We’re a strange creature, us Homo Sapien. Even our name, Homo Sapien, shows our beauty. The words Homo Sapien are two recycled words of a dead language, used in context for all people of the world. The words ‘Homo Sapien’ mean Wise Man, or Knowing Man. We’ve advanced for eons, and with that comes creativity. Some 40,000 years ago, in our earliest ancestors’ first days, we began painting scenes of life on cave walls. With that came a rocket that would propel humans for millennia.

Sterling's main gymnasium transformed in the art show

Let us, however, skip to present day life. Currently, the birds are chirping, the trees are green, and the world is verdant. This also marks the 36th annual Inter-District art show for Sterling High School. Give that a moment to sink in. For 36 years, our school has presented a grouping of some of New Jersey's finest art into a gymnasium. Our art show has watched the incorporation of Apple, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the election of this nation's first African American president. It's a long-standing tradition, a legacy, and we're very lucky to have it.

You're first greeted by the sheer amount of art work that is put in to this show. Pieces from all grades are put in. We see everything from the drawings of a first grader to the pictures of an alumnus. Then, you begin to think of the amount of planning that must have gone into making this work. Having briefly helped set up, it was stunning to see Mrs. Morgan, Ms. Maskaly and Ms. McTague coordinate the student helpers to move the pieces. "You see one mistake, then it's multiplied by a thousand" I overheard Mrs. Morgan say when she noticed a piece of tape out of line. You can see why. There's an art in the show itself, seeing how precise and perfect everything is laid out unto you. The room has a flow, a sort-of catch that draws you in further and further until you have to look at everything, elsewise having felt unsatisfied.

As always, the show went without a hitch. Many people from our five towns came out to see our community’s art. Parents seem genuinely interested in their kid’s art, and you can see it in the quality of the work our students produce. In my opinion, our school has some of the finest art I’ve ever seen. You could walk through the panels of our finest artists and see the passion that went into the work. All of this excitement is for awards in Painting, Drawing, Mixed Media, 3-D Design, 2-D Design, Sculpture, Printmaking, Ceramics, Art I, Computer Graphics I, Computer Graphics II, Photography, and Best All-Around. That’s 13 categories, and each has at least 4 awards. A lot of people got awards this year!

As someone who helped set up the show, I felt a special bond with how the show turned out. I’ve been in Sterling’s Art Program for all 4 years of my high school career, and have helped set up for the last 2 years. It’s truly amazing. Everyone that won an award definitely deserved it. As an award winner, it’s a great honor. I was selected to create this year’s Board of Education Art Commission piece, an honor which has befallen 34 students before me. It was titled “Global Iconographies”, and I had great pleasure in working on it. It displayed how icons can transcend language, and will one day work in tandem with our written words to unify humanity. It had its own space in the show, and will be hung in Sterling to grace its halls forever.

Devin Tabor's "Global Iconographies"

            Once again, the class of 2015 was selling refreshments in the foyer for their prom and promenade costs. The Band was also selling baked goods from 6 to 9. The Silver Tones, as always, put on an amazing show for all who came. Every year I’ve seen them they’ve been amazing. The Anime club was there, showing the finer points of Japanese culture, and impressed everyone who watched.

            In essence, and as I’ve said in this article many times, I am proud of what this has become and I hope to come here and visit the art show for years to come. I’m constantly awestruck at how our school can come together for something as simple as an art show. There are, of course, students who could care less about drawings, sculptures, or anything someone creates. Many people, however, enjoy this as much as I do, and that’s why our art teachers have kept working this hard for so long. There’s this stigma of a starving artist in our culture, since art is seen as something that’s dead. We look at a Da Vinci, a De Chirico, or a Renoir, and it’s something that’s an institution. They were the past masters. No-one can beat them, so why try? Why, you ask? Because art evolves, it changes. We don’t see great artists anymore, but it’s because the institution of art has changed drastically. We need to show the next generation that we can still be imaginative, and we need to show the current generations that art is still the beautiful thing that it’s been for the last 40,000 years. The art show does this for us. We’re 5 little towns in the 3rd smallest state in the nation, yet it makes a huge difference. This year is no exception, and that doesn’t cease to astonish me.