Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Sammi Alexander, a fourth-grade student at Genoa Elementary, was honored April 3 with an art show at the Genoa Branch Library, where she has her work on display for the month of April.
For Alexander, the honor was exciting.
“I didn't know I was this talented,” she said with a smile. “My art teacher (Stephanie Combs) is the one who selected me for it. She thought I was really gifted in art. It was pretty hard to believe at first.”
Alexander has several pieces of art on display, including a Leaning Tower of Pisa made out of recycled bottle caps, a 3D portrait of Rapunzel’s Tower and an oil pastel painting of a flamingo.
Two that she developed in school include a guided self-portrait and an Andy Warhol-inspired drawing of foxes.
Alexander has taught herself how to cross stitch, and she has her own sewing machine. She wants to further develop her sewing ability with plans on becoming a fashion designer when she grows up.
“Sammi's artwork is always outstanding,” Combs said. “She goes above and beyond. She has a level of creativity that really drives her, and she’s intrinsically motivated.”
Combs, who teaches art at Genoa Elementary, said Alexander thinks in terms of creative parts usage (CPU). People use the term in reference to Lego sets, and it is a mindset that encourages builders to think outside the box and find unconventional uses for parts.
“That's how Sammi thinks,” Combs said. “She thinks how she can creatively use a part. And that's what really sends her over the edge of being extraordinary.”
More than just talent
Combs recommended Alexander to the North Point Educational Service Center (NPESC) as part of the organization’s gifted services program that looks for unique art talent beyond the typical for the same age group. In turn, the NPESC decided Alexander ranked high enough on an artistic behaviors checklist provided by the state of Ohio, which led to the art show at the library.
In a typical year, there could be up to a dozen students selected, according to NPESC’s gifted services supervisor, Brandi Goodwin. However, the NPESC, which provides gifted coordination services for Sandusky, Erie, Ottawa and Huron counties, had just one selection this year – Alexander.
Susan Capucini, the gifted services coordinator for the NPESC, said they look for more than just talent.
“We're not just looking at technical ability, but their ability to improvise, (as well as) their ability to reflect and respond as an artist would in appreciating art or critiquing art,” Capucini said. “So it's more than just talent.”
With Alexander being the lone selection, the NPESC and Combs worked with Meghan Parker, the branch manager at the Genoa Library, to host the art show, which is typically held in the Norwalk Performing Arts Center.
“(Sammi) has a high level of skill and craftsmanship for somebody who's nine,” Goodwin said. “There's a lot of storytelling that goes on behind the artwork. She can speak the art jargon. She talks about texture and perspective. And she validates the choices that she made when it came to composition and why she layered things the way she did or obscured things the way that she did.”
Goodwin, who has a 20-plus year background as an art teacher and gifted intervention specialist, was on hand April 3 to grade Alexander’s artwork with the state’s rubric. She was impressed, especially with the Leaning Tower of Pisa made out of recycled Tropicana bottle caps.
“That’s completely constructed on her own with found materials except the platform that it sits on,” Goodwin said. “(Sammi is) inventive, and she's creative. To give you a good idea, when we identify kiddos in the reading and math areas, we're looking for kids that typically score in the 95th percentile or higher. That means there are only five percent of kids their own age that would score above them.
“We're looking for something along the same lines when it comes to the art. And for that, that's why we stick to the rubric, so it's not subjective. We know specific things that we're looking for, and that's in the language, the decision making and the skill.”
Developing talent
Alexander isn’t the first elementary student from Genoa to receive the recognition. She joins Gia Carroll and Andrew Nutter from a couple years ago, giving Combs three students in three years honored at the elementary level.
Carroll, who is now in middle school, currently works via an independent study with Jessica Cable, who teaches sixth, seventh and eighth grade art at Genoa Middle School. While Nutter is homeschooled, Combs said she recently spoke with his mom, who is helping to further his talent.
Capucini said teachers like Combs, Cable and Genoa High School’s art instructor, Jean Gidich-Holbrook, not only have a keen ability to recognize talent but that the district’s art department does a great job growing and expanding their talent.
“I have to say in working in multiple districts across four counties, Genoa's art department at all three levels is phenomenal,” Capucini said. “They are just phenomenal artists and teachers. They bring some incredible work out of these students.”
And it’s not just elementary and middle school students excelling at Genoa as Capucini also said there were five high school students of Gidich-Holbrook that were identified last year.
Those students - Paige Hornyak, Sophia Campbell, Avery Maluchnik, Brae Diebert and Hannah Bertok – were featured on district social media and have done some murals in the high school.
“They have done phenomenal work,” Capucini said.
Capucini said one of the important things in being able to provide an art exhibit like Alexander’s is that it helps open potential doors for students who either don’t have exposure to bigger city museums or students who never even knew art career paths existed.
She made note of a high school junior from another school district a few years back that was honored at an exhibition. With the experience, she decided to take College Credit Plus coursework as a senior and ultimately decided to attend the University of Cincinnati and study art, where she discovered there’s a thing called art restoration.
“That’s what really appealed to her,” Capucini said. “It opened a lot of doors for her as far as what’s out there beyond our tiny little four-county region.”
And that’s what makes what Genoa has done over the past several years all the more impressive. Goodwin said that teachers can’t just submit a portfolio based on the artwork they’ve done as a class. They have to coach the kids during the school day and also outside of the normal classroom projects.
“This is extra work for the art teachers,” Goodwin said. “The kids are obviously built differently when it comes to art, but talent development is a huge part of it. It’s being able to recognize it and wanting to coach the kids.”
