PAINTING

colors accented by pastel crayon drawings.

e artists’ teacher is guiding them through the process, and sometimes it’s challenging to keep them focused, especially considering the artists are rst graders at Bergen Meadow Elementary School.

How does a group of rst graders become commissioned artists?

Enter Robert Hinckley Jr., who manages the Denver o ce for Buchalter.

“We needed art for our new o ce,” said Hinckley, whose daughter is

Celebrating 41Years

a rst grader at Bergen Meadow. “Rather than traditional art, we thought it would be kind of cool and fun to have kids draw or paint the art.”

Hinckley hoped students would experience what professional artists feel when they work on a commissioned art piece.

“We hoped it would be fun for them to do the art knowing it’s going someplace in a law rm downtown,” Hinckley said. “We felt like both sides got a lot out of it.”

On Feb. 13, art teacher Elisabeth Marcus worked with the student artists, explaining the next step in the process. e students in groups of four had already put the rst coat of paint on the canvases, and on

MEET LORETTA!

Monday, their job was to add lines, circles and other shapes to embellish the abstract colors. en students will be nger painting, layering the colors and shapes.

Marcus told students that professional artist Janet Skates, the artist the students are emulating, was inspired by music, owers, plants and other artists, and noted that abstract art was di erent than other art forms.

“In math, one plus one equals two,” she said. “In art, you know when you’re done when you feel the ooooooo.”

Every time Marcus showed the class a picture of Skates’ work, they responded quite loudly with ‘ooooooo.’”

First graders Mackenzie Eisele and Shay Spungin worked diligently on the project, saying the designs had to be crazy but not too crazy. Shay added rainbow patterns to part of the artwork.

Mackenzie explained that it was cool to be working on a commissioned artwork, adding, “It feels like you have to do really good (because it’s commissioned). We have to focus.”

Marcus hopes to have a reception in April for the artists, their families and the law rm, and Hinckley hopes the students can eventually visit the law o ce to see their work hanging on the walls.

Brooklyn Hebrew of Evergreen is the winner of the American History Essay Contest for 2022-23 sponsored by the Mountain Rendezvous Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Candidates were asked to imagine themselves as a delegate during the 1775-76 Second Continental Congress. e judges found Brooklyn’s essay to be a passionate portrayal of the colonists of Maryland. Her convincing arguments tied together historical events from the Stamp Act, the Quebec Act, taxation and religious suppression under British rule.

Brooklyn has been studying the

American Revolution as part of the family’s homeschool curriculum.

Her mother, Molly, commented, “Brooklyn has a love for our founding fathers, especially George Washington. She learned that she could, in fact, write a 600-word essay, and that writing can be really fun.”

As a fth grader, Brooklyn likes to play with her two dogs, Emma and Cash. She also enjoys swimming laps at Wulf Recreation Center and playing with her brothers, Finley and Barrett.

Brooklyn aspires to be a pediatrician. She wants to visit the East Coast someday to visit historical sites and travel the world.