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Farmstead Arts presents “Portraits: The Artist’s View”
A virtual exhibit featuring works of Art & Photography Students from Ridge High School
Farmstead Arts is pleased to showcase the works of Ridge High School’s Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Art, AP Photography and Photography III students in an online exhibit entitled: Portraits: The Artist’s View.
The show will run online at www.farmsteadartscenter.org through April 16.
Under the guidance of Wendell Jeffrey, Ridge High School Art Teacher, and William Ortega, Ridge High School Photography Teacher, 48 student artists created works which explore relations between the artist and the model as having an unwritten agreement / contract which allows the artist to visually represent their impression of the model’s identity and personality.
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The artist’s interpretation of the individual is their signature. This exhibition is about the relationship between the sitter and their engagement with the viewer.
The exhibit includes artist statements and portraits created in a variety of mediums including digital photography, digital drawings, colored pencil, graphite, markers, pastels, watercolor, acrylics and oils.
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About Wendell Jeffrey: Wendell Jeffrey has a MAT in Art Ed from the University of the Arts and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is a visual artist and art educator with over 30 years’ experience teaching, with 23 years at Ridge High School. Her special interest is in connections between teaching and real experiences outside of the classroom. Wendell has completed numerous residencies, including Vermont Studio Center and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. She has received multiple awards and grants for her work including the Geraldine Dodge Foundation Artist Teacher Grants. Currently her studio orientation is rooted in drawing with elements of painting and printmaking integrated within mixed media sculptures and installations and has exhibited her work in both local and global venues.
About William Ortega: William A. Ortega is an educator and visual artist. He received his BFA from New Jersey City University, an MFA from Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts and an MPS degree in Digital Photography at the School of Visual Arts. He has exhibited across the United States and was selected as a 2017 American Photography Latin American Photographia winner. He has been an educator for the past 20 years and has been teaching photography and digital media at Ridge High School since 2007.
As a first generation Latin American Ortega's work focuses on the process of assimilation by exploring many themes of identity through his photographic images. Ortega's projects are underlined with a sincere question about place, whether in its immediate physical presence by documenting and inspecting used items, landscapes, immediate family, ancestry and cultural racial history and its psychological impact. His work references male relationships and the modern day view of masculinity that addresses perplexing suggestions ingrained by our cultural unconsciousness.
About Farmstead Arts: Farmstead Arts is a center for fine, performing and practical arts located in Basking Ridge, NJ on the historic grounds of the Kennedy Martin Stelle Farmstead. Farmstead Arts offers virtual and in-person art classes, workshops, art exhibits, theater, concerts, dance, children’s activities, and lectures in history and the arts.
Funds for this event have been made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, through the State/County Partnership Local Arts Program Grant administered by The Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission.