Judson ISD students get their art out

William Delahay, Wagner art teacher, chatted with students, parents and curious onlookers interested in finding out more about the art chosen to be displayed.

“It’s real exciting because we haven’t been able to do this since 2019,” Delahay said, referring to cancelled Art Extravaganza efforts in 2020 and 2021.

“A lot of kids haven’t had the opportunity to see their work displayed before,” Delahay said. “Being able to come here and see it up … puts it into a different perspective for them, more like a museum than in the classroom while they are working on them.”

Every school in the Judson Independent School District participates in Art Extravaganza, proudly displaying the craft and creation from the minds, eyes and ears of its students.

Martinez, a third-grader in Roxanna Grimaldo’s art class at Hopkins Elementary School, explained how she created her watercolor octopus that was on display.

“I love art. It’s my personality, it’s what I love to do,” Martinez said. “I love to draw. I just drew a cat and a cow at home, and now I am going to paint them. But I really love to draw people, just random people. I like to draw silhouettes, or just any person, really.”

Walters, a senior at Wagner High School, had two pieces on display — one a pencil drawing of a photo he took of himself, the other a pencil drawing

“I enjoy pencil, I find it to be the easiest. I do painting as well, but pencil is my favorite,” Walters said.

Both of his works are pencil creations. His most captivating piece is a pencil drawing topped with pen of Springtrap, a character from the Five Nights At Freddy’s horror video game.

“I’m just a fan of the franchise and I just decided to draw it,” Walters said. “It took me about a week to do. I drew it with pencil then I went over it with ballpoint pen.”

Another of his pieces on display was an in-class assignment that required meticulous work but produced a rather striking image.

“I took a photo of me just wearing a costume mask,” he said. “We were assigned to do a grid drawing, so we had to do each square individually. It actually turned out pretty decent, I was pretty shocked myself.”

Springtrap took him about a week, the mask self-portrait, about two weeks.

Walters said his foray into art began when he was about 5 years old, “just drawing dinosaurs.” Next year, as a freshman at the University of Texas-San Antonio, Walters will use his love of art as the basis for launching a career.

“I actually want to pursue architecture. I’ve wanted to bring my talent into my career,” Walters said. “I figured architecture would be the best way to do that.”

Pre-K student Scaliatine “has always liked drawing, mainly cats,” according to her mother, Stephanie, who was weaving her family through the maze of display walls to find her daughter’s creation — students painted an image then bent the paper in half, copying the same image on both sides. Photos taken of the children were then cut out and place on the paper, creating “human butterflies” of themselves.

The young Scaliatine, 4, a Rolling Meadows Elementary student, enjoyed seeing the artistic endeavors of other students. Nearby was a table of painted sculpture produced by Rolling Meadows fourth-graders, while a wall of paintings hung nearby. When Stephanie pointed out the different forms of art to her daughter, Finley reacted as only a youngster could.

“But I already did a painting,” she said. “I’m a painter.”