Local students receive scholarships for Sierra Art Trails
BY EARLENE WARD - FOR THE SIERRA STAR

Kristina Barry is shown with a large flower picture that took about three hours to complete.

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Patch Kientz is shown with his painting on the wall of the Yosemite High BadgerGallery.

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Bailey Powell is shown with her largest painting to date.

Three area students have received scholarships to participate in Sierra Art Trails which will be held Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 23 and 24, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at studios and galleries in Eastern Madera County and Mariposa County.

The scholarships cover the students’ entry fee and provide money for art supplies.

The students are Patch Kientz from Yosemite High School, Bailey Powell from North Fork Elementary School and Kristina Barry, a home school student in the Chawanakee District.

Kientz, a senior at Yosemite High, has two career goals: He wants to be a theoretical physicist and an artist.

Kientz will be showing his work at Stavast Studio Gallery on Highway 41 in Oakhurst.

He says his work has “a lot of variety” and much of it is abstract impressionism. Oils and enamel paint are his favorite media but he also does charcoal drawings and pastels.

Kientz recently finished a painting on the walls of the Badger Art Gallery at YHS.

He says he has always had a real interest in art and his been inspired by Van Gogh since he was about 12. Art has come naturally to him, he says. Most of his painting is done in his two art classes at YHS.

Speaking about his art style, he says “I like to express the theme in my paintings of randomness and chaos resulting in an organized state.”
He calls himself a philosophical painter, meaning that he has a philosophy to back up what he does.

He says he uses a lot of motifs such as pigeons and a figure he has created called the “great observer” to represent how random occurrences such as Darwinian evolution and, in theory, the “big bang” result in an organized nature.

“Organization is a continuing process such as the way in which a star collapses into a black hole,” he explains.

Kientz says he has enjoyed his art classes at YHS “very much” and he adds that art teachers Rivka Schaffner and Diane Bopp “have been major inspirations. I’ve learned a lot from them about art history and art techniques.”

This year, his YHS art teacher is Carol Hendrickson, who is new to the art staff.

He had a show at Timberline Gallery last year and sold four pieces. “It is a thrill” to have people buy his work, he says. He currently has a one-man show at the Badger Gallery at YHS.

Shaffner, who was Kientz’s art teacher when he was a freshman, says he is “one of the most advanced art students to ever cross my path as an art educator.”

She said with each assignment he completed, it became “more and more apparent that I had an artistic genius on my hands. I felt like I was training a future Picasso .. he did not see it yet.”

Shaffner goes on to say “I look up to him as an inspiration for my own art. I consider him an equal in my field of painting.”

She concludes by noting that Kientz’s “potential as an artist will be recognized by the art critics sooner than we think.”

Bailey Powell, a nine-year-old North Fork Elementary School student, says she started “drawing in my high chair.”

Bailey hopes to have 10 pieces ready for Art Trails. She has recently completed her largest picture to date, a 24x36-inch picture of two girls in acrylic, but she is hoping to complete an even bigger one before the show.

She says her subjects are “girls, girls, girls, women and girls.” Her mother, Frankie Powell, comments that she likes to draw “very feminine girls” with fancy clothes and lots of makeup. Bailey says she likes to draw “elegant” women and girls.

She is always drawing; whether she is riding in the car or waiting for an appointment, she passes the time sketching.

The girls and women she draws are from her imagination for the most part, but some are from movies she has seen.

Bailey has participated in art shows in the past and, her mother says, she has some collectors already. At a show with her father, Richard, this summer in Fresno she sold all five or her pieces in the first hour. Another time, a woman bought three of her pictures off the wall at an art show. Richard Powell will also be in Art Trails.

She works in acrylic, pen and ink and watercolor.

Bailey has started a college fund with half of the proceeds from her paintings. Her mother says she spends the other half on “Barbies and shoes.”

Her small paintings have sold for $30 with larger ones going for more.
At show openings, Mrs. Powell said Bailey really isn’t interested in whether her paintings are going to sell or not, she’s much more interested in how many other kids are around to play with.

While Bailey spends a lot of time painting, she says she likes to have friends over to her house for fun. She also enjoys playing the piano and horseback riding. When she grows up she wants to be an actress and paint just for fun.

Mrs. Powell says Bailey chooses to draw but sometimes needs encouragement to finish a piece. “We encourage her to keep her commitments,” she says, but they do not force her to paint. Even though she may need some encouragement to complete a painting, she’s always very happy when she does finish one, Mrs. Powell said.
Art Trails will be Bailey’s “farewell tour” in the Mountain Area, Mrs. Powell says, as the family is planning to move to North Carolina in the near future.

Kristina Barry has done all kinds of watercolor and sketching but her favorite is waterfalls followed by flowers. She also does some landscapes.

The 16-year-old has been doing art work for six or seven years but she has always liked to draw.

She has shown her work at various places including the Madera County Art Show, North Fork Art Show, Fall Festival and the Fresno County Fair. However, her mother, Raena Barry, said “Sierra Art Trails will be the real exciting one.”

Kristina has never sold her art but will have 10 paintings available at Art Trails for sale. She will show her work at The Bortugno studio in Ahwahnee. This is the home of one of her teachers, Sharon Bortugno. She also studies under Joan Brumley.

Kristina wants to be a professional artist and she wants to get into computer animation. She is currently doing “lots and lots” of anatomical sketches preparing herself for a career in animation. She has been inspired to be an animator through movies such as Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Toy Story.

She hopes to get into “a really good art college” to continue her education.

The young artist notes that a really large painting may take her two to three hours. If she paints all day, she can turn out two or three paintings.
She is motivated to paint and does not need to be prompted to take up her brush. She paints at home and she paints in her art classes and, she says, she “really enjoys it.”

Asked what is the most difficult thing about her art work, she replies “I can’t do horses.”

Her mother is very proud that Kristina will be among the 112 artists featured in Art Trails. “I am really proud of her. It’s really exciting that she can participate along with the best in the mountains,” she said.
Over 100 artists and artisans will be featured in Art. People will have an opportunity to “get a first hand view of how artists live and work,” according to Sierra Art Trails Web site, www.sierraarttrails.org
A catalog is available for $12, listing the artists and the viewing locations with a detailed map. The catalog can be ordered on the Website.

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