Featured Photos: 1) Art teacher Katy Elmore explains Pop Art to her class at Koontz Intermediate on Dec. 1, 2021. 2) Ms. Elmore assists a student during art class. 3) Student Sara Sevier creates a mask-themed piece of Pop Art.
By: Benjamin Rickert
BCS Communications Dept.
In Ms. Katy Elmore’s art room at Charles T. Koontz Intermediate School, fifth and sixth graders engage with authentic art and culture.
This week, her students experienced ‘Pop Art’ - a modern art movement that began in the 1950s characterized by American artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Short for popular art, Pop Art works are inspired by commercial and popular culture, often created from familiar objects, goods, and media. Elmore described Pop Art as colorful works of art often featuring bold outlines and based on simple subject matters. (Think of Warhol’s famous Campbell’s Soup can screen prints, for example.)
“It fuels me every day to share the things that I love and to see them latch onto it and run with their own ideas,” said Elmore.
On Wednesday, students used the current COVID-19 landscape as inspiration. They cut out colorful mask and strap shapes and glued them to a Ben-Day (dotted) background imprinted from painted bubble wrap.
"Pop Art is the art of popular culture, and unfortunately, COVID is popular," said Elmore. "But the kids are getting really excited about the subject matter. It represents the time period."
At one table, Student Sara Sevier concentrated as she ran a line of glue along the edge of her paper.
“I like doing art because I love to paint and draw,” she said. “Ms. Elmore is a really great teacher, and I like her.”
For students who might view themselves as less creative, Elmore encourages them to recognize their own, unique styles. Each 12-by-18-inch piece was created using a similar process, but was unique in color, character, and positioning. The teacher helps students to celebrate these differences and trust their intuition.
“I really try to help them express their art — their artistic brains — even if they don’t think they have that ability,” she said. “My goal is always for them to leave confidently.”
With nine years of teaching experience, Katy Elmore holds two art degrees from Concord University in West Virginia — one in Art Education and the other in Studio Art. She has taught at Koontz for three years.