Castlemont Joins Montalvo's Arts Splash!

Third and fourth graders busily put together small squares of art in room 33.

Multi-colored paper clips littered desks, acting as hooks between the small, sometimes abstract piece of art created by about 350 students.

These third through fifth grade students were preparing for their very first time being part of Montalvo's annual Arts Splash!, an open house/open studios and student art festival, now in its third year.

The artwork, color swatches from the or paint stores with designs made by paint chips and a written poem, quote, hope or dream on the back, will be installed at the event on April 21.

Named the "Tapestry of Color, Shapes, Thoughts, and Quotes," the colorful pieces were strung up by students using paper clips.

"I liked that we could cut out things and put anything we wanted to on this," says fourth grader Noah Campbell. "It wasn't an organized thing."

Third graders Noor Khan and Chelsey Gudie both agree that decorating their piece was their favorite part of the project while fourth grader Jenikah Zepeda says that using colors was "really fun."

Campbell artist and Castlemont art teacher for 10 years Nancy Meyer first found out about the event while teaching art camp at Montalvo last summer. She, along with Castlemont teacher Anne Ajlouni put together the event.

"The kids made abstract art using recycled paint chips," Meyer says. "And on the back, they'd write a quote or something they liked, or a thought. And really, all the writing on them is just wonderful."

Every student participating has ben invited to the event and will take home an award for their participation.

The event is free to the public and takes place April 21, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. at the Montalvo Arts Center, 15400 Montalvo Road, Saratoga, CA 95070.