On Monday, February 12, the art club hosted its annual SPLART Night for K-6 students. SPLART began 10 years ago when Mr. Kramer imagined having an art event for all K-12 students to enjoy. This was the 10th year it was hosted, and 126 kids participated, not including Art Club members. Each student who participated made a $25 donation to the Art Club. Four mascots showed up this year. There were two new ones, a clown named Blimpy and a heart named Grumpy. They did various stunts and skits to entertain the kids. Some of these included doing a race and having a dance-off. Mr. Kramer said, “Art Club members were the heartbeat of the event. Without them SPLART night would not be possible; they do everything from handing out paint to helping the students wash their hands.” Thanks to Art club members for helping out with the event.
The paintings the kids did were inspired by the artist Keith Haring. Keith Haring was an artist born in 1958 in Pennsylvania. He did art and drew a lot from a young age and loved it. He was known for art that consisted of the continuous repetition of stylized shapes in bright, vibrant colors and outlined in black on different media. He went to the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. He was inspired by the work of Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Alechinsky, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Robert Henri’s manifesto The Art Spirit. These influences caused him to push through his youthful impulses toward a kind of graphic expression based on the primacy of the line. He mostly did public artworks and produced more than 50 public artworks between 1982 and 1989 in dozens of cities around the world. Many of these were created for charities, hospitals, children’s daycare centers, and orphanages.
