Painting of Embracing Nude Women Draped : Art: A senior at Orange County High School for the Arts says it is banned because it addresses her lesbianism. Officials deny censorship.

Officials with the Orange County High School for the Arts have forbidden a student from exhibiting at a senior class art show an original painting that depicts two nude women embracing.

The student, Letitia Houston, 18, said the painting and a text that accompanies it are meant to address her lesbianism.

School officials said Thursday that they are not “censoring” the art but are disqualifying it because it does not fit Houston’s submitted theme: her struggle with Catholicism. Officials also said the painting was submitted late.

Nancy Melbourne, director of the high school’s visual arts department, said: “I felt (the painting) was not dealing with her theme of her struggle with religion, and all of a sudden, four days before the show, she’s throwing in another whole issue,” that of lesbianism.

Melbourne initially wanted to remove the painting from the show, she said, but agreed instead that it would be draped, after Houston and other students threatened to withdraw from the show.

Ralph Opacic, the high school’s executive director, said he supports Melbourne. “My job is to support the decision (Melbourne) makes,” he said.

But other students with works in the exhibit on view tonight at Rancho Santiago College’s Art Gallery in Santa Ana said they plan to shroud some of their own works to draw attention to what they perceive as censorship.

“I’m a little disappointed” in the high school, Houston said. “It’s an art school, a place for you to grow and expand. I finally had gotten around to the point to voice my opinions as an artist and to feel strong enough to do it, and now they’re telling me no.”

Art teacher Adi Yekutieli, whose class is presenting the exhibit, said Melbourne asked him whether Houston is gay and said the work might be found offensive by high school board members and harm the school’s relationship with Rancho Santiago College. The art school is on the campus of Los Alamitos High School.

Melbourne denied that she objected to the painting because it might be found offensive, but she did object that it was submitted unfinished.

Houston’s mother, Charlette Cook, has long been aware that her daughter is a lesbian and said she is proud of Houston’s outspokenness.

“I have always felt that our American society is built on denial, and it has denied all kinds of people, all kinds of behavior and opinions,” Cook said. “The world is too small now for all of us to remain secluded and unaware of each other.”

She said she does not find her daughter’s painting offensive. “What are we going to do, keep homosexuality in a dark room forever? And if there’s a God,” she asked, “is he going to not love (a woman) because (she) loves another woman?”

Houston said her mother “has been wanting me to stand up for my principles, and she thinks this is a good time to start. She’s always been one to speak out against injustice.”

Houston, 18, painted the 5-by-6-foot acrylic as one of four works she planned to contribute to the nine-person senior class exhibit. The abstract painting depicts two bare-breasted women, one clutching the other around the shoulders.

But, Houston said, Melbourne told her Wednesday that she must drape the painting entirely with a cloth and change a statement she wrote to go with it.

In her original statement, in which she explores her experiences as a Roman Catholic and explains the theme of her work, Houston wrote: “I don’t want to live with the fear of going to hell because of loving another woman.”

In the reworded statement, “another woman” will be changed to “another person,” Houston said.

Melbourne said Thursday that the exhibit would be on view only from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. today. Several people associated with the show said they had thought it would be open for several days at least.

Houston’s classmate, Melissa Manfull, said she plans to cover all but one of her five works in the exhibit.

“I don’t think (Houston’s) work should be censored, and I don’t think it’s at all offensive,” Manfull said.

“We’re all a little frustrated that someone can actually have the right to say we can’t have certain works in the show,” she said. “It’s our show. We think we should be allowed to show what we’ve been working on for the last year.”

Debates over freedom of expression are not new to Orange County. In a widely publicized 1990 incident, officials at Fullerton’s Muckenthaler Cultural Center removed a photograph depicting rock titan John Lennon, nude, embracing his fully clothed wife, Yoko Ono.

The photograph was reinstated, but the center’s curator quit over the incident, saying his authority had been usurped. The incident occurred in the middle of a furious national controversy over federal funding of what some called obscene or sacrilegious artworks.

Yekutieli, who is also an artist, said he disagrees with the school’s decision.

“As long as somebody doesn’t encourage people to kill each other (or depict bigotry), nothing is offensive,” he said. “I have been following (Houston’s) work as it developed, and I thought it was a courageous risk she took.”