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Pop art: Students honor Veterans Day with poppy-themed masterpieces

By Cati Keith 7 min read

Area art students have been incorporating red poppy flowers into their work as part of a Veterans Day project led by the Center of Fine Arts at Saint Francis University.

The finished pieces will be on display Wednesday at the JFK Students Center during a matinee performance of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." The show, under the direction of Lance Mekeel, assistant theater professor, will feature SFU students and will be attended by students taking part in the art project.

The artwork will then be moved to The Keirn Family World War II Museum at Saint Francis University for the museum's rededication ceremony on Nov. 11 and will be on display throughout the weekend.

First-, second- and third-place prizes, sponsored by the VFW St. Benedict, will be awarded.

The idea for the art project came from William Campbell, father-in-law of Jessica Campbell, who is a visual arts professor at the university.

William Campbell recently passed away, she said, but the Vietnam veteran had asked her to do a project with poppies.

"He wanted to see how students could recognize and remember our soldiers and their battle while creating artwork," she said.

The awards are being sponsored by his local VFW, St. Benedict Ream Miller Post 7783, in which he was very active, she said.

The idea for the project was well received by the Center for Fine Arts at SFU, she said, noting that it is a great opportunity to engage area youth in Veterans Day.

Area schools were contacted, and that's how students from Altoona Area, Bishop Guilfoyle, Cambria Heights, Central Cambria and Penn Cambria got involved.

Campbell said creativity was left up to the students, who could create individual or group projects.

"It really depended on how the teachers could fit this into their already full curriculum," she said.

St. Benedict VFW supplied each school with 1,000 poppies and it was up to the students and teachers to create works of art incorporating at least one poppy into each piece.

Red poppies have been handed out on Veterans Day since World War I to raise awareness for fallen veterans, Eric Hoover told students in his survey of art class at Altoona Area High School. A total of 29 students, in both his class and Kathryn Curry's painting class, are taking part in the project.

"I talked about taking something as simple as a polyester flower and turning it into a piece of artwork to represent something that is happening significantly," Hoover said.

As a veteran himself, seeing the students create their artworks with the poppies gives him a sense of pride.

"People don't realize what veterans do, giving up your life to help serve and protect the country," Hoover said.

The project is one way for students to learn and understand sacrifices made by veterans, he said.

Altoona students created three-dimensional art as well as paintings and more, all incorporating the red poppy.

"I'm excited to see people's reactions when they look at the artwork," Hoover said.

Alivia Crawford, a junior, painted a scene of a veteran standing in a field full of poppies and then attached some of the poppies to make it look like they were coming out of the painting.

"My uncle is a veteran, so I want to make it represent him," she said.

It took her about two weeks to complete her piece.

"I hope when people see my painting, they will appreciate veterans more," Crawford said.

Other students, such as junior Meleah Lang and senior Dustin Baughman, chose to go with 3D works.

Lang took a sculpture class last year and decided to use that to her advantage.

She used a Vietnam War helmet borrowed from Hoover, and put paper-mache over it to create a lightweight helmet that she then drilled into it to keep the poppies in place. She then added moss to the piece.

"I wanted to give it a worn appearance," she said.

A stand to place it on and string lights inside so it glows completed the work.

While creating her piece, Lang said she thought of her father, who is a veteran.

"I think it's cool he did something for our country, and I hope when veterans see it, they just enjoy it," Lang said of her art.

Last week, Baughman was still working on his art piece -- a mesh face outline covered with poppy petals with different flowers mixed in.

"I thought originally of doing a flat painting but then as I brainstormed it, I thought it would stand out more if it was three dimensional," he said.

Baughman has several veterans in his family, including his father, who is in the military, and his great-grandfather, who fought in World War II.

"I thought of my grandfather while creating this because he was a big figure in my life," he said.

He hopes his art raises awareness for veterans because he said they are not treated as they should.

Lea Gioiosa made a World War I style jacket with poppies sewed into the lapel and poppy fabric sewed into the inside lining.

"She made it all from scratch," Hoover said.

Lavendia Guo sculpted a heart out of foam and then covered it in poppies. The heart is held by plaster cast copies of her own hands.

A graveyard complete with the "In Flanders Fields" poem was made by Elle Dalby. The tombstones are made of the little tags attached to the polyester poppy flowers given out by the VFW.

Hoover said the poem was created by John McCrae, a Canadian physician during World War I, and it is where the idea of using poppies for veterans came about.

"He wrote it for a friend of his that died in the war," he said. "McCrae actually threw the copy of the poem away and his friends found it."

Tammy Weakland, an art teacher at Penn Cambria Middle School, said about 180 eighth graders participated in two group projects and they also saw it as an opportunity for cross curriculum learning.

Students learned about the meaning of the "In Flanders Fields" poem from in their language arts classes taught by Darleen Prodrasky and Jacque Comstock.

"They were excited and realized what the veterans did for them," Weakland said.

There were two group projects where students created two different versions of the American flag.

One flag was made up of plaster craft faces, representing soldiers, surrounded by poppy flowers.

The second flag was created to look like it is draped over a face.

Weakland said she was proud of the students and glad they were willing to work on the projects.

"They were so supportive and enthusiastic about everything," she said, and with her son just joining the service, the project hits closer to home.

Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School art teacher Neil Young was in charge of organizing the project at the school.

"I thought the project was a great opportunity for students to honor veterans," he said, noting that 11 students from his 2D and multimedia and design class participated.

Young said he was very impressed with the work his students did for their projects.

Altoona's Curry said it was exciting to see what the students came up with and the project is a great way to showcase their creativity and imagination.

"I'm happy to see the direction they all took it," she said.

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