AN ARTY AFFAIR

There was much clicking of cell phones and cameras for photos June 6. And chatter about art as a large crowd of parents and pals checked out art students’ work at “Project Talent: The Ark Group Exhibit” at Louisiana State Exhibit Museum.
The summer art show opened with the reception which honored students and their teachers. The student artists study at Caddo Magnet, C.E. Byrd, Captain Shreve and Huntington high schools. Guests saw  pottery and works on canvas and paper, in Prisma colored pencil, mixed media. 
The exhibit is up.
Charlotte “Chuck” Stephens was among them, showing off her arty projects to her father and mother, Dr. Stephen and Ellen White, brother Collier, and grandfather Cody White, there with Anne Wilson. (The budding artist is also the granddaughter of the late community leader, Sara Margaret White.)
Charlotte wants to attend the Rhode Island  School of Design, Providence, R. I. “I want to be an illustrator, and I’d like to work with comics,” said Charlotte, as she showed your work on display. Besides “Persephone,” done with color pencil, they included “Holy Land,” an acrylic filled with wonderful renderings of sheep, and the brightly hued  acrylic, “Love Birds.”
Although he has loved art all his life and has four pieces in the exhibit, student Michael Landry will study engineering, not art, at Xavier of New Orleans. For he also loves math.
Pointing to one of his works, he  said it is titled “Me, Myself & I.” 
“It is a picture of ‘me, myself and I,’” Landry said, with a chuckle.
Landry  is  an “A” student, who has a Presidential Scholarship to Xavier.
“We’re very proud of him,” said his mom, Laketha Payton, there with his dad, Charles Payton.
Jamare Kai Boult started throwing pots only five months ago. “Now I’m in love with it,” he said.
Although we only chatted a few minutes with Boult, we  could tell he usually has a smile on his face and is a lot of fun. So he heartily agreed to pose for a photo with two pots held up to his face. A smart student, too, for he holds housing and academic scholarships to University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His proud parents Jo and Derrick Boult also had smiles on their faces as they hovered around his large exhibit.
The participants are part of “Project Talent,” developed by Henry Price, art supervisor for Caddo Parish School System.
Honoree teachers: Curtis Bias and Shirlene Alexander. 
Honoree students: Elijah Boston. Abigail Boykin, Savannah Brister, Hailey Brown, Lydia Clark, Charity Costanza,  Cameron Drury, Riley Edgell, Anne Michelle Erwin, Hannah Francis, Katie Funk, Sloan Hall, Anna Pryce Hardtner, Mia James, Jonathan Jones, Daisy Kallenberg, Michael Landry, Yuting Lin, Bella Mainiero, Alex Martinez, Rachel McCauslin, Anna Miley, Kayleigh Mizzell, Robyn Myres, Alexis Nuban, Savannah Rust, Madison Savoie, Laura Sharlow, Kianna Smith, Noel Todd, Sidney Trundle, America Villagomez, Ayanna Watson, Charlotte White, Morgan White, Kassidy Adams, Jamare Kai Boult, Ava Collins, Lillie  Lawson, Evelyn Grimes, Vivian Holman, Breana Sanchez and Autumn Tipton.