Amazing student artwork, unique collaboration featured at West Area Art Show
The 2025 West Area Art Show and Fine Arts Friday event, held on April 11 at Cherry Creek High School, featured 210 pieces of amazing artwork, including sculptures, paintings, drawings, and mixed media pieces, created by elementary, middle, and high school artists from across the Cherry Creek High School feeder area. It also offered interactive arts activities for the whole family.
“We showcase what we do here and allow the community to join in,” explained Efong Yee, CCHS Ceramics Teacher.
New this year, the community event also featured a collaborative collection of 60 drawings, created by second graders at Dry Creek Elementary, along with 60 ceramic pieces and 60 creative writing pieces, created by students at Cherry Creek High School. The project was the brainchild of Dry Creek Art Teacher Sarah Glennon, with support from Yee and CCHS Creative Writing Teacher Marissa Voss.
Glennon had seen a story about a similar project on a national news program and wanted to give it a try in CCSD. It started with Dry Creek second graders drawing a picture and sharing a few facts about a “monster” of their own creation.
“I love dogs, so I made it with dog ears, and I wanted to make it cute, so I made the mouth, and I love stripes and swirls, so I put swirls on it, and stripes,” said second grader Cora Higgins, about her no-so-scary monster named “Rainbow Puppy Paws.”
Next, CCHS Ceramics II students took the Dry Creek students’ drawings and facts and brought them to life in 3-D ceramics, which was no easy task.
“My students had to take something that was flat and two-dimensional that normally wouldn’t stand and figure out how to make it three-dimensional and allow it to stand,” explained Yee. “Most of them tended to be very top-heavy - huge giant heads and tiny wire legs – so we had to do some really creative thinking in terms of how to get their vision to come alive.”
“It was a challenge, I won’t lie,” said CCHS senior Denver Jiner, who gave substance to a second grader’s monster named “Money Belt.” “It was fun though. I really did enjoy it,” he added.
“It was kind of tricky, because you have to take this little drawing and think creatively but also keep in mind what the kids were thinking,” said senior Taylor Bailey, who created a tiger-like monster named Poison.
Second grader Ryan Barrett wasn’t sure a high schooler could accurately build his monster, which he dubbed “Blueberries” because of the monster’s berry-like antennae, but he was pleasantly surprised.
“I thought it would be hard for them to make the wings and the antennas, but they had no problem!” exclaimed Barrett, who gave his 3-D monster a 10 out of 10.
While Creek art students created the 3-D monsters, creative writing students wrote short stories about them
“It was terrifying because there are page limitations. You want your piece to be really good, and you want your second grader to like what you’ve written,” senior Madison Hart said. “I spent a lot of time on this. It was just so exciting and so fun to try and remember what you were like as a second grader. It was a fun, creative process.”
Several Creek students, including Diner, Bailey, and senior Nola Bruce, did both a story and a ceramic piece.
“My second grader’s monster is named Lovey,” Bruce said. “She is pink and fluffy and loves hearts. She has three horns, three rainbow horns.”
Bruce wrote a story about how Lovey lost the color in her horns, discovered a grumpy neighbor had taken the colors because he was lonely, then came up with a way for her neighbor to make new friends so she could get her colors back. The story met with approval from Lovey’s second grade creator.
“It was so fun to see her reaction and see how excited she was,” Bruce said.
During the art show, some of the second graders got to meet their high school partners in person. Second grader Cora Higgins found that her partner wasn’t a student, but rather student teacher Kristin Donaldson, who loved being part of the project
“It was awesome,” Donaldson said. “Being able to help teach, learning how to become a teacher myself, and learning how to make a student’s project was just the best.”
Even better, Higgins was thrilled with the 3-D figure Donaldson created.
“It was really good!” Higgins said. “Even though I didn’t add the rainbow on the bottom, I absolutely love rainbows.” She also loved the story about her monster. “I really liked how Rainbow Puppy Paws was adventurous and had magic powers!”
Donaldson hopes to do similar collaborative projects with her own students next year.
“It connects from generation to generation,” she said. “I think it’s really cool to see the kids interact like that.”