Publications & Sites 
Middle schooler’s digital artwork exhibit is evocative, imaginary
Sara Clarkson
Updated: April 6, 2012 5:17PM
If you happen to be over at the Hinsdale Public Library, do stop in at the Quiet Reading Room where “Focus on the Middle: Mrs. Stewart’s Shutterbugs” is on display. While the room is indeed silent, sometimes filled with readers and those tip tapping away on laptops, the 25 images, products of Hinsdale Middle School seventh- and eighth-grade students, are bright and loud and boisterously cheerful and interesting.
These pieces come from Stephanie Stewart’s computer graphics students who had to use the program PhotoShop and combine digital images, trying to be conscious of color and form and shape as they worked.
Seventh-grader Allison Bruns was very aware of those things. She found an image of a group of stones, which reminded her of nature. She imposed the pagoda-like lines of a Japanese temple photograph with predominantly red hues over the stones. The temple almost looks like it was painted over the rocks, Bruns said, which appealed to her and she also like how the two images brought out blues and reds. It is a very Zen-looking piece.
Nick Bruni, a 14-year-old eighth-grader has two images in the show. One is his face with a leaf imposed on it with bright orange colors, and the other is the merging of a road onto a forest of trees, which becomes quite an evocative piece, bringing to mind the immensity of redwood forests.
Lourdes Gomez, seventh-grader, put an image of her face — which is itself turned into a negative and bisected checkerboard-style onto a time-lapse image of Lake Shore Drive downtown. It’s a fun picture in which she has outlined the images. “I liked this class,” she said.
There’s a very cute one of seventh-grader Cayden Brannigan sitting in a pink tea cup and flying — yes flying — up Washington Street in Hinsdale. Thomas Dunphy superimposed an inguana-type lizard on a stormy Stonehenge, which certainly gets the viewer’s attention and Cassandra Jennings has combined what looks like a peacock feather over an ancient castle or fort.
The exhibit will be on display through May 15. It’s worth a visit for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the appreciation of how adept and unafraid today’s adolescents are with digital imaging.
Ready for
kindergarten?
The Zion Lutheran Early Childhood Education Center is hosting a series of three parent seminars starting with The Benefits of Pre-School for Kindergarten Readiness from 7:30-8:30 p.m. on Monday, March 19.
At that time, two excellent and well-respected elementary teachers from Prospect School, Alison Bergin and Lynn Arens, will talk about how to get your child ready for kindergarten.
“They will focus on what kids really, really need,” according to Christine Justema, the Zion Lutheran pre-school administrator.
While some of us may think that one of the main benefits of pre-school is that it gives the child’s caregiver a break (ahem), there are truly sound social and — dare we mention — even academic reasons as well for pre-school. These District 181 teachers will discuss those reasons from the point of view of the teacher.
Zion Lutheran plans to host two additional parent seminars with the next being on Monday, April 16. Pastor Tracey Bianchi of Christ Church of Oak Brook will talk about her new book Mom Connections: Creating Relationships in the Midst of Motherhood. Bianchi’s first book was Green Mama—The Guilt-Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet, a practical, family guide with Christian overtones to living “green.”
The third seminar of the school year is planned for mid-May. For more information or to register for these programs, call Zion Lutheran Pre-School at (630) 325-0065.
Teen driving laws
If you house one of those expensive terrors known as a teen driver, you might be very interested in “Driving 101: Steering Through the Maze of Teen Driving Laws.” This will be the topic of a Hinsdale Central High School Parent Teacher Organization monthly “Conversations With the Principal” on Monday, March 19. Drivers education teachers Craig Concklin of Concklin Insurance and Hinsdale police officer Mark Keller will be the featured speakers at the 10:15 a.m. presentation. Come and get the real facts about what the laws are because if you think your teen driver is giving you accurate information, you might be surprised at the variance between their version of the law and presenters’ version of the law.
“Driving 101” will be held in the Hinsdale Central Community Room.
