by Lisa Bransten
PA News Editor
San Francisco Day School was a little louder than your average gallery, and the walls were a little more jam-packed with art, but the third-grade docents were as informed and professional as at any art space as they toured community members around the school on April 29 at the 26th Annual Student Art Show.
For nearly 40 minutes Gillian─clad in Nick Cave-inspired fingerless gloves─guided me and first-grader George expertly through the various galleries that featured art inspired by each of the artists the students studied this year.
The school’s maze of halls and stairwells held thousands of student pieces inspired by artists that included Margaret Kilgallen, Nick Cave, Maurice Sendak, Dolores Grey, Lee Bontecou, and Melvin Occasio.
“Now we have entered the Alberto Giacometti gallery,” Gillian informed us as we left the Yee Jan Bao hallway and turned into the school’s lobby. “He was a surrealist and did abstract things including exaggerated facial expressions.” And indeed it seemed that nearly all the flat surfaces of the lobby were covered with various interpretations of human heads done in the style of the great Swiss sculptor.
Through the archway, we passed by portraits inspired by Mission District artist Margaret Kilgallen─who, Gillian told me, liked to paint portraits and profiles with particular focus on lips─into hallways filled with the monsters of Maurice Sendak.
She captured my attention when she told us that Sendak’s images are based on his aunts and uncles “who had long noses and big moles, and that is what inspired the monsters.”
While trying not to get distracted by other parents, students and, siblings on their own tours, we passed through galleries of works inspired by the scientific images of Ernst Haeckel and the family photo-boxes of Dolores Grey. Then it was on to the last gallery in the library where the walls were covered with student puppets based on the works of Melvin Occasio. Films of puppet shows were playing.
As we walked through a rare opening with no new pieces, Gillian told us how much she liked the art show and─in particular─being a docent.
“I like explaining facts,” Gillian said. “Usually we don’t get to see each others’ art work and now we can,” said, “so it’s cool that way.”
George and I were tired by all that we had taken in. But not Gillian. She said goodbye and bounded down the hall to pick up another tour group.
Click here to view photos of Handmade.
