If you ask a Lower School artist what a transformation is, they may have a Transformer toy come to mind. Think of a transformation like a change. In fact, the children’s dictionary defines a transformation as:

a major change in the form, shape, character, or nature of something or someone

 For the fall of 2021, Lower School artists are excited to transform our artwork into actual space of the Coates-Seeligson Gallery rather than a virtual exhibition. Our transformations started as colors painted on cardboard, paper, and swatches. They changed form and perhaps even their nature once put together in a space here on display.

For this installation, students in Forms 4 & 5 studied specific colors like marigold flower petals and Frida Kahlo’s house color from her home, La Casa Azul. Form 3 students researched colors of plants growing at Kahlo’s estate, such as bird of paradise leaves and the fuchsia hue of the bougainvilla blossom. Forms 1 & 2 students created paintings with lines, patterns, and complimentary colors.

This color study began an interdisciplinary project with Art and Spanish classes in the Lower School. Students studied Frida and Día de los Muertos by creating an altar for her featuring handmade marigold flowers. The paintings and installation on view at Transformations punctuated this unit of study by transforming the abstracted colors to a minimalist exploration of marigold hues next to Casa Azul blue.