In the first year of the pandemic, Laura Sturgill learned how to record her art lessons. She sent out videos to her second through sixth graders at Oak Hill School south of Nashville.
The second year, students returned to the class. They wore masks and seemed weary of the world, Sturgill says. She could see how badly they needed to make art.
“Especially with kids, it’s a lot of how they process their emotions,” she says. “I could see that last year. I think it was a release for them more than it’s ever been.”
Sturgill saw it helping her students, and decided to turn to art herself. She brought a canvas to school at the beginning of this school year. And every day after the students left, she would add on to the painting.
First, it was a big, bold brushstroke to capture the excitement of returning to the classroom. Then, smaller more rigid marks as students were adjusting to the structure of school again.
Courtesy Laura Sturgill Aftermath by Laura Sturgill
The final product is a 2-by-2-foot abstract painting, called Aftermath. Her work, along with 32 other Davidson County art teachers, will be featured in a Frist exhibition. It celebrates how teachers helped students navigate through a difficult and unprecedented time.
Sturgill says having her work hanging in the Frist makes the challenges of the last few years worthwhile. She plans to bring her students to see it soon.
The exhibit Nashville Art Teachers: Beyond the Classroom will be on display from March 4 to August 28.
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