BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Thirty-eight students and one adult participated in a two-week art camp last week at Faith Presbyterian Church in Midway. The sessions concluded with a show on Saturday, June 25.
Retired teacher Gayle Bone started the summer camp at Melrose’s Mossman Hall while she was a kindergarten instructor.
“This might be the last time I can do it because I’m 72 now, and it’s getting harder,” she said.
Bone said art education for children is spotty in the Lake Region, with Keystone Heights Elementary offering classes but Melrose Elementary not providing art instruction.
“Some students have taken private instruction, but not many do that,” she said.
This year’s students ranged in age from six to 16, plus the sole adult.
In addition to completing two projects each day, the campers studied the work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo who is widely known for her self-portraits.
“She was in a lot of pain her whole life,” Bone said of the painter. “She ended up doing some strange artwork. I didn’t really like her artwork, but she’s very famous.”
This year’s projects included still lifes, self-portraits: based on the work of Kahlo, retablo boxes: Peruvian folk art, jelly prints, molas: embroideries inspired by Panamanian Indians, and papier mache.
One of Bone’s former students is now one of her assistants.
Hannah Royalty started attending Bone’s summer camp as a kindergartener and continued throughout her primary and secondary years. She then attended the Florida School of the Arts at St. Johns River State College in Palatka.
Bone said her 26-year-old assistant helped Bone with much of the planning for this year’s camp and assisted students with projects.
