News Blog

After School Care artists inspired by Our Lady Star of the Sea

October 13, 2013

Three groups of young artists who attend out of school hours care at Waitara Family Centre, adjacent to Our Lady of the Rosary Primary School, have been thanked and honoured with a presentation at CatholicCare’s Head Office for a series of art works they were commissioned to create to adorn the walls of the Diocesan Centre’s Star of the Sea Conference Room.

 

Sophie Conn, Angela Jeong, Erin Jeong, Claire Kim, Isabel Lasker, Madeleine McMahon, Sophie Overton, Yasmin Say, Sophie Sellars and Kelly Tintinger – all in Years 4, 5 and 6 at Our Lady of the Rosary – were inspired by the creation story as recounted in Genesis to create three unique representations of the wonder of the world’s creation.

Jasmin, Isabel and Sophie Conn chose Genesis 1:14 for their inspiration: ‘And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night …. and let there be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth”. In the girls’ own words, “We drew the star as our focus for our theme of ‘the Star of the Sea’. Instead of drawing the star plainly, we used rainbow colours to show the wonderful lights from the star. We used real sand to create texture in our painting.”

A second artistic trio – Kellie, Madeline and Sophie Overton – found inspiration in Genesis 1:21: ‘So God created the great sea monsters and every living thing that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swam…’. In explanation of their work the girls said, “In drawing the creation of God’s world we chose an abstract style of painting, which reflects the chaos of the sea as it slowly starts to take shape. We used bright colours to reflect the beautiful sea life.”

The third group of creative collaborators, Angela, Claire, Erin and Sophie Sellars, were inspired by Genesis 1: 26 in particular: ‘Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, After School Care artists inspired by Our Lady Star of the Sea and let them have dominion over the life of the sea, and over the birds of the air” to draw “the star in a dark sky and the girl who came out to wonder at God’s creation. We added fish so it would seem as though it came out to look at the star also.”

Commenting on the originality – and poetry – of the girls’ artworks CatholicCare CEO Deirdre Cheers said ‘it is wonderful to see youthful creativity applied to one of the most beautiful and profound stories of the Christian tradition with such intelligence and integrity. All of these fabulous young female artists, working collaboratively, have interpreted and re-imaged our Lady , Star of the Sea in a natural and accessible way, and given visitors to CatholicCare a practical demonstration of the way in which our services for children are being used. We are delighted to have these works enlivening our walls and brightening our decision-making!”

Note: Out of School Hours Care Coordinator Margaret Byrne who attended the presentation with the girls was at pains to make clear that Waitara had no gender discrimination to its afterschool program of activities! “All the children in our care are free to choose from within our structured learning environment whatever activity is of most interest to them. We just don’t have any young male artists who would forgo some more high energy pursuit for artistic endeavours! Perhaps if they had known in advance about the special afternoon tea and thankyou gifts…”