Students from Southwest Open School brought their artwork to the Cortez Cultural Center on Thursday for an exhibit that will be on display through April.
The school’s annual Spring Art Show is usually held in the Cortez Public Library, but this year art teacher Nate Osgood got permission to display it in the Cultural Center. More than 70 paintings, drawings and prints by the school’s 25 art students are included in the exhibit. The exhibit, held during the center’s normal hours, is free. All the artwork is for sale.
The paintings on display show a wide variety of styles and experience. Adam W. Yazzie, who is set to graduate this year, included his first black and white ink print in the exhibit, which depicts the design from a Navajo wedding basket. He said he usually prefers to paint trees, but decided to make the print after being inspired by his grandmother’s wedding basket. The symbol shows a geometric circle that is open at one end.
“You never close off the circle, because you close your mind when you close the circle,” Yazzie explained.
Other works in the exhibit include watercolor portraits, drawings of anime characters, painted landscapes and much more. Osgood said he had “a strong class” this year, especially in watercolors.
He said he tries to help his students experiment with different artistic media every school year. Last year, they got some old plates from the Methodist Thrift Store, broke them apart and created a mosaic project. That didn’t go too well, he said, so this year they’ll be ending the spring semester with a clay project.
This is Osgood’s second year teaching at SWOS.
“For a lot of students, art is their favorite class,” he said. “It’s kind of what keeps them coming back to school, so I feel very privileged to be teaching art for that reason.”
Several friends and family members of the artists attended their exhibit opening on Friday, and Osgood said one student sold two paintings by the end of the day.
