Thirteen William Floyd High School student-artists were recently invited to attend the New York State Art Teachers Association’s (NYSATA) first-ever “All Island” workshop at Babylon High School! This group of talented juniors and seniors earned their invitations by receiving a ranking of “Distinguished with Mastery” on their NYSATA Portfolio adjudication last spring. In this inaugural workshop, student-artists had the opportunity to work with accomplished artist Andres Gallardo.

Andres Gallardo is a Panamanian-American artist based in Brentwood that is well-known for his “GEM (Give Everyone Moments) Project,” in which he hides small pieces of his artwork in public places for people to find and keep. He has been featured in both Newsday and the Long Island Press in addition to hosting his own TED Talk to discuss the GEM Project. Andres explained his mission of spreading kindness and building community through art with the students and detailed his professional career as an artist.

After learning about Andres’ work as an artist, the student-artists let their creativity shine in the hands-on portion of the workshop and designed some “gems” of their very own, using vinyl records as their canvas. They created stencils and used a variety of spray-paint techniques to build layered effects that created new shapes, forms and textures on the base of their records. Then, using the new techniques they had learned alongside Andres, the students expanded their work by incorporating magazine collage, acrylic paint pen drawings and other mixed-media materials into their creations.

“We are very honored to have our students recognized and given an opportunity to work with a professional and successful artist,” said Theresa Bianco, Fine Arts chairperson, William Floyd School District. “These young artists got to use different materials and approached something ‘found’ with a new eye and created beautiful pieces on vinyl records. The concept of making something old - new again and sharing your art is what fueled these creations in this immersive experience.”

Congratulations to all of the following students for earning invitations to this distinguished workshop: Colette Angona, Annamarie Colabella, Lilyanna Diaz, Jordyn Gandolfo, Isabella Humberstone, Jae Kim, Sofia Leslie, Olga Matos, Sasha Mckenzie, Hannah Schultzer, James Start, David Villegas and Coco Wang! Additional congratulations to their teachers, including Erin Almeida, Theresa Bianco, Melanie Kuklis and Erika Licausi!