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Colorful expressions
Students show off artistic talent
WEB Art exhibit 2
Arts council Chairwoman Leah Poole and Liberty County Convention and Visitors Bureau program assistant Brian Hulsey organize artwork Tuesday at the exhibit opening. - photo by Randy C.Murray

Students from several Liberty County elementary schools are showing off their artistic talents in a crayon medium at the first-ever Children’s Art Exhibit, which runs through April 30 at the Hinesville Area Arts Council gallery on Commerce Street.

Sponsored by the arts council and Keep Liberty Beautiful, the students’ crayon artwork celebrates Earth Day and Liberty County’s distinction as “Home of the World’s Largest Crayon.”

 “I organized the schools to take part in this exhibit,” Waldo Pafford Elementary School art teacher Carol Hough said. “The crayon medium goes back years ago, when kids donated crayons to make the city’s giant crayon. Each student donated two works of crayon art that will be sold. I’ve even donated one of my own works that will be auctioned.”

Hough’s piece, a frog print, hits the auction block the first Thursday in May, the opening day of the Farmers Market.

Seven-year-old Dynazia Gilyard, a first-grader at Waldo Pafford, pointed out her crayon print to her mom, Shonaykha. When asked why she likes art, Dynazia shrugged her shoulders and grinned.

“It’s fun,” she said. “I like the colors.”

Nearby, art-show attendees admired a crayon drawing of a calla lily by Kamara Brown of Button Gwinnett Elementary School. Along the same wall, a “crayon drip” work called “Cool Shower” by Tabitha Reynolds of Waldo Pafford shows a silhouette of a young girl holding an umbrella against a deluge of colors.  

“Each piece had to be a crayon drawing,” Lyman Elementary School art teacher Brittany Nearhoof said. “It could also have an Earth Day theme.”

Nearhoof, Hough and art teachers Rebecca Hager of Button Gwinnett Elementary School and Brenna Baluh of Taylor’s Creek Elementary School mingled among the students and parents viewing the art exhibit.

Hough said she hopes the exhibit will lead to more children’s art showcases.

HAAC Chairwoman Leah Poole said the funds from sales of donated prints go to the HAAC building fund and would help make future art exhibits possible. She was busy selling donated prints for $10 apiece.

The free exhibit runs from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Thursday and is open to the public.

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