by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Last week’s post in the “Time Capsule Tuesday” series commemorating the City of Industry’s 60th anniversary of its incorporation highlighted the elementary school division winner of an art contest held as part of the celebration. The contest asked those submitting entries to envision what the City will look like in 2057, when it celebrates its centennial.
As noted last Tuesday, the winners of the three levels (the third being high school) were honored at the “Taste of the Town” event held on the 16th at the Industry Hills Expo Center. The recipient at the junior high/middle school level is April Diaz, who just completed the 8th grade at Lassalette School in La Puente.
April’s submission was an unusual format, which certainly attracted attention on that basis alone. She took a trio of used breath mint tins and created what I’d call a “shadow box”, in which a three-dimensional effect is developed by raising elements of the work above the flat surface at the bottom of each tin. The vignettes that resulted combine under a single heading of “An Ecofriendly Future.”
Noting that the city’s newly adopted motto is “Jobs, Enterprise and Industrial Infrastructure” and stating that an ecofriendly environment is what people will want, April began with the vignette at the top showing life in 2017, in which the focus on technology is such that people often forget to pay attention to the environment.
She then, in the other two sections, shows how, in the future, technology can still have its place while people look to do more for the environment, such as having more green space and trees, for example, while pursuing the jobs and ideals they want.
April’s use of watercolor paper, watercolor paint and cardboard, in addition to the clever recycling or “adaptive reuse” of the mint tins incorporates, in her words, “elements of form and balance to give the viewer perspective.”
In a well-written explanation pasted down on the bottom of her art work, April expressed her feelings about the piece:
When I look at my completed work, I am most proud of my last two tins because they hold more objects, were more challenging to create, and seem to me to be more impressive. In the future, I plan to do more three-dimensional pieces of art and to continue to draw attention to our surroundings.
The members of the committee that judged the submitted works of art did, indeed, feel that April’s work was “impressive” and were drawn to the use of the tins, the three-dimensional effect, the adherence to the contest’s theme, and the attention to detail given.
Next week, we will highlight the winner of the high school level, so check back then.