Denise Dittmar, Teacher
The issue that I explore in my
artwork is the relationship of
the artist to the sitter in portraiture. The interplay between the
digital image and the painted
image particularly interests me.
I began with domestic portraiture of my children in a
photorealistic style. Later, I
explored the portrait in juxtaposition with conflicting Eastern
and Western viewpoints, and then utilized text to present social and poetic messages. During this process, I
began to shift painting styles and experiment with a
more expressive painting process. In addition, I began
to create manipulated photographic portraits that have been
altered with oil paint, wax, and
other materials to produce a
series that address formalistic
and expressive traits and show
a merger of machine and hand-generated images.
—Denise Dittmar is an art teacher
at Plano East Senior High School in
Plano, Texas. Denise.dittmar@pisd.
edu
Lance Johnston, Student
After taking a sculpture
course last year at another
school, Lance Johnston found
himself skilled at working
with various materials. At the
same time, he began taking
welding classes at the Creative Arts Center in Dallas
where he worked on a series
of progressively larger pieces
with metal. He received two
fours (highest rating) at the Visual Arts Scholastic
Event and one of his pieces—a three-dimensional
outlined plant form with a metal sphere—Untitled,
was chosen to compete at the state level. He has
experimented with twigs,
wire, and other found objects
as well.
Lance is planning on majoring
in business in college, but he
probably will continue to take
art and particularly sculpture
classes.
—Lance Johnston is a junior at
Plano East Senior High School in
Plano, Texas.
Call for Entries:
This year, SchoolArts is recognizing the work of students and teachers from around the country, and we are looking for more art to be featured. Please send images of your work and the work of one of your students, along with
100-word artist’s statements, on a CD to Nancy Walkup, Editor, SchoolArts, 2223 Parkside Drive, Denton, TX 76201.
