Photograph by George Sakkestad

Second graders from Loma Prieta School created this papier mâché dinosaur for the Fourth Annual Kids' Art Event at the Los Gatos Museum of Fine Art and Natural Science.

Kids have their day at Tait art exhibit

By Shari Kaplan

For its fourth annual Kids' Art Event, the Los Gatos Museum of Fine Art and Natural Science presents mixed media works by students from the Loma Prieta Joint Union School District and the Mountain Bible Christian School and by children and teenagers at the Children's Shelter who are working with artist Ruth Tunstall Grant.

Grant, a well-known Bay Area artist and teacher, has worked with the Children's Shelter for more than 10 years. She also maintains a studio in Los Gatos. The Children's Shelter serves several thousand young people each year--from babies through age 18--from all racial, social and economic backgrounds. Their common bond is that they have been abused, neglected or abandoned.

The creative arts are one way of healing, and are a specialty of Grant's, who holds a bachelor's degree in art and a master of fine arts degree. She coordinates programs not only in the visual arts but also in drama, music and dance. The art in the Los Gatos museum includes colorful mosaics, papier-mâché masks, mixed-media collages of the young people's favorite things, ceramics, sketches of personal signs and symbols and paintings--including self portraits, life-size cutouts of prominent figures in African-American history and computer-created digital art. After learning about a given art form from Grant or from one of many guest artists, the youths are given the opportunity to choose their themes and mediums and express themselves freely.

"I have a hard time explaining how creative art justifies itself. It's an intangible thing, and when things are intangible, people tend not to see the importance of them," Grant says.

"Art allows children to be who they are with a line of integrity that no one can touch. There's no right or wrong in art, just different ways of expression. Art makes kids feel whole and encourages them to dream--and when they can dream, the sky's the limit!"

Among the art by the Loma Prieta and Mountain Bible students are mixed-media collages using everything from pretzels to confetti; a construction paper "quilt" whose squares are tied with string; an actual quilt made of soft and colorful cotton patchwork; critters crafted from pinecones and pipe cleaners; crayon-resists; self-portraits; nature paintings; 3-D drawings of students' "Dream Rooms" and individual renditions of Leonardo daVinci's classic Mona Lisa.

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The Kids' Art Event runs through March 28. The Los Gatos Museum of Fine Art and Natural History, at 4 Tait Ave, is open from noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, call 354-2646.

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