Children chill out at OnePast7

Published 10:36 pm Thursday, December 13, 2018

Families were packed inside the OnePast7 art studio Thursday evening for a gallery of winter delight made by talented students at Mack Benn Jr. Elementary School.

The school’s Winter Art Show featured 101 unique pieces of art made by the elementary schoolers. According to art teacher Lydia Dommel, they were simply told to make something that’s winter-related.

“Anything to do with winter, like a snowy barn or a snow owl or a penguin bundled up for the winter,” Dommel said.

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Christmas presents, polar bears and snowmen added to the variety of colorful designs on display. Fifth-grader Adriana Penn-Alexander, 11, drew herself as a snowman with help from a friend. Her snow-self was sitting next to an open fire with stockings hanging proudly.

Her other piece was of twin snowmen singing beside a Christmas tree under a night sky.

“I’m a Christmas person, and snowman is one of my favorite Christmas traditions,” she said.

Third-graders and genuine twins Kadmiel and Kaniel Arias, 8, got the opportunity to show how creative they can be for the holiday season.

“It makes them proud with what they’ve accomplished with their art,” said their uncle, Edward Arias.

Nick Baines was smiling ear-to-ear with pride as his daughter Payton, 6, showed her family what she made in class. The first-grader is constantly doodling in her spare time, a skill that she probably didn’t get from her dad, at least according to her great-aunt, Maxie Hathaway.

“She didn’t get it from him,” Hathaway said and laughed, adding that the best he could do is stick figures. “(We’re) not sure where she got it from. Probably from grandpa.”

This was the first art show for Suffolk Public School students at OnePast7, according to Dommel, who’s one of the many artists featured in the studio. She typically does an end-of-the-school-year show that celebrates Youth Art Month in March. But this year she was feeling extra “Christmasy.”

“I thought this would be a great place for a little art show,” she said.