Photo by Mr. Matthew Stevens

Gallery 35 is located in the opening part of the auditorium and it is available for students to see the creative pieces of artwork from their peers.

The Basics

Gallery 35 is an art exhibit space for EHHS. The primary purpose for this is for students to show off their hard work.

Mr. Stevens shared that the gallery, “gives students a chance to display their work and get experience presenting their work to a larger group. And it’s also there so that we can bring in different artists that have different perspectives and introduce them to East Haven High School population.”

Opening Night

According to all three interviewees, it was not well attended as hoped. But the art community understands that not everyone could stay after for the opening night. The gallery is more likely to be seen in the beginning of the day when everyone is in school.

Sharing Their Work

Overall, students like sharing their artwork. Lex Zachey said, “Scary, scary. It’s tough to put yourself out there and do something, but it’s nice when you actually do it.”

Ayvah Vincent feels that it’s very nice to share artwork and see how it comes together. She said, “I like sharing my art. I like seeing how people react to seeing it and what they think of it. I like getting little critiques and their opinions on what they feel about it.”

The Artwork

Lex Zachey entered a still life piece. Ayvah Vincent entered an Umbreon Silhouette and two pet portraits.

The Creative Process

Lex Zachey created the still life piece in a matter of steps. She first planned it out in her head and then tried to find a way to translate it on paper. The still life piece was white charcoal on black paper. Ayvah Vincent explains her creative process as sketching or drawing when bored. For the Umbreon piece she had an idea and sketched it out on her iPad.

Lex Zachey explains that she likes when the piece starts to look like what it was in your head in the beginning. In other words, going from something simple and messy to reaching the point where it’s the final result you wanted. “So like, it’s all messy in the beginning and then there’s a point where it reaches where it’s like, yeah, there it is.” 

Ayvah Vincent said, “Seeing what it’s like from beginning to end the final product is always like often to look at but looking at how you got there is always fun. Like it started out as a great blob and now your bullpen Look at that.”

Here are some sketches from Ayvah Vincent’s creative process.

The Artists

Ayvah Vincent, Austin Riveri, Lex Zachey, Kayla DeLuca, Nalini Harry-Esposito, Brandom Santos, DJ Allen, and Mary Reino.