The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

mmm Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 5559) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: rjerred@haltonsearch.com W ED N E SD A Y , MAY 8, 2(X)2 · Page C 4 Love of art evident in exhibit By Mary-Louise Langlois SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver HITTING ALL THE RIGHT NOTES: Kaitlin Milroy from the Oakville Children's Choir sings her heart out during Celebrate Oakville. The special event, held at the Oakville Conference and Banquet Centre, was a fundraiser for the renowned children's choir. ometimes you don't have to be an experi enced art critic to see real talent showing through on canvas. When art is pure and the love of art is true it feeds the soul and inspires the human heart. Emotion, beauty, and creativity are just a few words to describe the works of some gifted local OAC art students. And for the next two weeks, these Oakvilleschooled OAC art students have the opportunity to dis play evidence of that talent, and examples of their semes ter's work. The OAC art program is a demanding program that challenges students to work like "real" artists. For the first time -- and for the entire course -- the students set the parameters that they work in. Up until that point in their academic programs, their teachers essentially tell them what to do and how to do it, along with a timeline. In this OAC course, the student artists are expected to conceptualize, explore and articulate a particular theme that unites all the pieces they create in a way that is impor tant to them. They develop major art works over the course of the semester which S Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver Josh Guthrie from Queen Elizabeth Park High School sits in front of his mixed media piece titled SU PERJESU S. The art is part of an exhibit titled Final Frame VI. results in a major piece every three or four weeks. Final Frame VI, the exhibit now taking place, offers the students a show case for their varied-- and emerging -- talents. Jane Coryell, a former art and drama teacher at T.A. Blakelock, launched this exhibition while she was still teaching at Blakelock. About six years ago an idea hatched to put an art show together, which involved all the high schools in Oakville. For teachers, in the early years of the demanding OAC program, the exhibit was an opportunity for them to see what was being taught in other area high schools. "A lot of students go from the OAC course into univer sity and college studies. The course does what it was designed to do. It prepares students for working very independently after they leave high school," said Coryell. For the first five years of the Final Frame exhibition, the students' work was dis played at The Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville for one week. This year the venue has changed and the exhibi tion period is over two full weeks. The exhibit opened last Friday at the O 'Connor M cLeod Hanna Building, 700 Kerr St. The artwork will be displayed Monday to Friday, this week and next, from 8:30 a.m .- 4:30 p.m. OAC art students from Queen Elizabeth Park, St Ignatius of Loyola, St. Thomas Aquinas, T.A. Blakelock and White Oaks all took part in the exhibit. A number of participating student artists were on hand at the opening of Final Frame VI. The vivid works of Blakelock student artists Janise Herridge, and Jen Allchin were on display, along with those of Q.E. Park OAC student Kerry Walford, who exhibited her acrylic and mixed media paint ing 1930s Radio, and Miranda Urbanski, both stu dents of teacher Ron Casman. Urbanski's striking paint ing in reds, Salvation, was a thoughtful example of how Internet access that's twice as fast as high speed phone. Now you can do twice as much online with COGECO High Speed Internet over cable than you can with high speed phone access. Like watching videos, getting MP3s, upgrading software and hitting your favourite web sites. Net n et you get twice as much net the OAC course challenges the student to think on both the intellectual and creative level. Her theme for the pro gram was the human body. Her painting is of a woman with both arms extended out ward and her head lifted to the sky. "You really have to delve into the darkness before you can understand the light and be enlightened by it," com mented Urbanski, reflecting on her piece. Urbanski is very support ive of the OAC art program. "The OAC program has given me a whole new out look on what art means. This course really gets you think ing about what you are doing and what messages you want to convey. It really chal lenges you as an artist." Her teacher, Casman, has been an educator for 25 years and shares his love of art with his students. "I count my blessings every single day because I am working in a Field I enjoy, with people I like, doing something that is worth while," said Casman. Life, in its many, often complex facets, is depicted in the work of these students, but it isn't only emotion that is skillfully crafted. White Oaks Secondary School student Liz Currell submitted two works, both of which were painted on less tra ditional surfaces. Her sobering portrait of a woman Solitary Reflection was painted in acrylic on chip board and the Forgotten Child is acrylic paint on plywood, both of which express her theme of human emotion. One goal in her work is getting in touch with core emotions, but with out words. "A lot of my work was inspired after the tragedy of Sep. 11, especially Solitary Reflection. There were so many people in shock there were no words to express what people felt." Currell plans to pursue her art next year at university. Gandhi, by St. Ignatius of Loyola Student Jee Yeon Lim, is a powerful acrylic portrait of Gandhi which includes the quote, "When I despair I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won." St. Ignatius of Loyola Art teacher Liz Tkalec strongly supports the dedicated efforts of exhibit founder, Coryell. "It is so wonderful that someone like Jane has put so much time and effort to cre ate this opportunity for stu dents," said Tkalec. Coryell demonstrates a dedication to the students and to the arts, and a clear determi nation to continue to coordi nate this kind of outstanding forum to exhibit the works of talented Oakville students. It's no doubt easier for Coryell to continue her self less supportive efforts, given the remarkable display of tal ent the exhibit produces each and every spring. LOOK FOR * · P arty Packagers* ULTIMATE SPRING E l 4 Page Flyer in Now only $24.95/month for 3 months. (Includes FREE basic installation or SAVE 5 0 % on professional installation.) Call 1 888 6 CO GECO or visit cogeco.com to order. r 'r \ r \ . \ z GIECO © HighSpeedlnternet ir r x i\ n r \ n \ : n r K e e p i n gyou t w r n e c i Today's Paper! Offer ends June 30, 2 0 0 2 . Monthly rate after 3-month offer is $ 4 4 .9 5 . Professional installation offer is $ 4 9 .9 5 , regularly $ 9 9 .9 5 . Download speed based on transfer speed of 2Mbps for COGECO vs 1Mbps for high speed phone. Not available in all areas. Some restrictions may apply.