Jeweled Jumpers and other flights of fancy

BOARDMAN — Seventh-grader Emily Schueller depicted grasshoppers as a sea of colorful jewels.

Arina Kravitz, also a seventh-grader, turned footwear into art.

Tom Crew and Jamal Davis demonstrated their artistic ability in a pastel drawing of a classmate and an etching of the sea into aluminum, respectively.

The four Center Middle School pupils are among the Boardman school kids whose works have been bought to hang in the halls of the Akron Children’s Hospital floor of the new St. Elizabeth Health Center’s Boardman Campus.

The new hospital at Market Street and McClurg Road is slated to open in the summer.

Joyce Mistovich, an art teacher at Center, said an art consultant chose 50 works by pupils after visiting Center and Glenwood middle schools, the high school and Market Street, Stadium Drive and West Boulevard elementary schools.

“When Akron Children’s Hospital puts a unit into a community, they like to get artwork from that community,” the teacher said.

Pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade whose pieces were chosen received $50 savings bonds, and high school students earned $75 savings bonds.

All of the art will be professionally framed, catalogued and labeled.

“They will be in the permanent collection of Akron Children’s Hospital,” Mistovich said.

The other teachers whose pupils’ works were chosen are Sandi Bates, Edie Davidson, Thom Fecik, Barb Ferranti, Carl Rubino and Lori Szoke.

The consultant, an artist himself, didn’t steer toward a particular theme or color scheme, Mistovich said.

“The subject matter was unlimited,” Mistovich said.

It took Tom, 14, and an eighth-grader, three days to complete his pastel drawing of his classmate. When he was finished, he wasn’t overly impressed.

“I just thought it was OK,” he said.

He was surprised to learn that someone wanted to buy it and says his parents were thrilled when they heard the news.

Jamal, 13, who’s in seventh grade, drew a sea turtle and fish onto aluminum.

In his written interpretation of the work, Jamal said it represents the peace and beauty of the ocean.

“The turtle symbolizes peace, and the fish symbolize freedom,” Jamal said. “This piece is for any and all people who love the ocean.”

When he finished it, he says he was pretty happy with it.

Even when Jamal isn’t in art class, he usually carries a sketch book with him. He likes to draw cartoons.

Arina’s contribution to the Akron Children’s collection, called “A pile of shoes,” is an ink and graphite drawing.

“We were in groups with three other people, and we all took off our shoes and put them into a pile,” she said.

Then they drew them.

She was surprised when she learned someone had bought it.

“I just thought they had other things that were better,” Arina, 13, said.

Emily’s assignment was to draw insects, and she chose grasshoppers done in colored pencil.

“I’ve always liked the way that the wings of insects catch the light and it’s reflected off of them and makes them look like jewels,” she said.

Emily, 12, filled in the scales on the wings of each grasshopper she drew with a different color to mirror that. She called the piece “Jeweled Jumpers.”

News that her work would be part of the display caught her off-guard.

“I was really surprised because I didn’t think it was that good,” Emily said. “But I was really honored.”