Day of the Dead inspires Samo’s annual art gallery
Cleo Topp / The Samohi
Dancers from the Santa Monica Ballet Folklorico perform a traditional Mexican dance celebrating Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead.
On Thursday, Oct. 26, Samo hosted its annual Roberts Art Gallery, with a themed focus on the following celebration of Day of the Dead. The walls were decked with pictures, paintings and multimedia pieces with mediums like fabric, string, paper mache and more. Alongside these creations were tables decorated with ceramic pieces from coil pots to sculptures to dishes. The students have spent the past month preparing for this show. Art teacher Amy Bouse speaks on how the show highlighted the artists.
“Everyone had a similar prompt, but I think you see a little bit about each individual who created those works,” Bouse said.
While not specific to Day of the Dead, the inspiration for this gallery was driven from the tradition in Mexico of Mexican retablo paintings: work typically done on wood, metal, or tin as a token of thanks or devotion. The students were asked to make something to express their gratitude or wishes for something that has happened, from any of the themes often seen in retablos such as natural disaster or personal relationships.
Lola Edwards (’24), Flynn Lagga (’24), and Taryn Beck (’24) worked on the installation of the show, spending two weeks prior during lunches, class periods, flex times, and after school to decorate the space with student art as well as decorations. All three also had their own work up in the show: Edwards with a portrait of a close friend as a tribute to them and their work on the show last year; Lagga with his work of the moon as a show of gratitude towards his relationship to it and its beauty and nature; and Beck with an appreciation to music through depictions of her CDs and radio. Edwards commented on how it felt to have their artwork up for others to see after putting so much work into the show.
“It’s great to have your work put up in a show because it’s something that you’ve worked on [and] put a lot of effort into,” Edwards said. “It’s very meaningful.”
Samo students with art in the show were also excited to have their pieces up along the walls. Josephine Gelinas (’24) painted a scene of the last picture she took before leaving her experience abroad in Berlin as an appreciation to the city that shaped her as a person. Having this emotion and creativity honored among the other pieces in the show, for her, was uplifting.
“I was so excited to have my piece up in the art show and see it among the other amazing works. I feel lucky to have been presented with the chance to show my art and also witness the works of my incredibly talented classmates,” Gelinas said.
In the middle of the gallery showing, elementary students from the Santa Monica Ballet Folklorico performed dances they had been working on as well. They danced traditional dances from all around Mexico, highlighting important cultural traditions around the Day of the Dead. Not only were the younger students at the Santa Monica Ballet Folklorico included in the art gallery, but so was the art of students from John Adams Middle School. This gave incoming high school students the opportunity to include their work in a setting they can look forward to if they choose to continue pursuing art at Samo, and to experience the joy students like Yahayra Hernandez Nunez (’25) have gotten from this continued path.
“I’ve always had a passion for art, so being able to take a class that allows me to indulge in an activity that makes me happy was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Hernandez said. “Seeing my own work up there with that of people whom I artistically admire makes me feel fulfilled and excited to continue working on different projects and seeing everyone’s artistic progress along the way.”