Countywide : Showcase of Talent and Hard Work

Deaf since birth, 10-year-old Randy Dayus has found a way to express himself. He has learned to paint, and has gotten good enough to have some of his works displayed at a local museum.

In “Dreamscape”--a painting done in bright yellow, red, range and green--Dayus, a fifth-grader, drew himself playing with elephants and tigers in a zoo, riding his bike and shooting basketballs.

“He just loves to draw,” said the boy’s father, Mark Dayus. “He draws the things that he likes to do the most.”

Dayus is among 60 students in the Santa Ana Unified School District who have participated in a 20-week art course taught by Joycelyn Dixon and Helen Seigel and whose work is being shown at the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

The program is intended to encourage students to develop their artistic talents. Students include those in special education, gifted and talented, and deaf and hard-of-hearing programs. Dayus is one of six students at a deaf and hard-of-hearing program at Taft Elementary School in Santa Ana whose artworks are exhibited.

Dubbed “Major Art/Minor Artists,” the exhibit features work by third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders from Taft, James A. Garfield, Jefferson and Remington elementary schools. The students’ artworks will be displayed until June 29 at the Newport Beach museum, which has become has become a partner of the art project with the Santa Ana school district over the past two years.

“It was difficult,” said Seigel, who has conducted weekly art classes at the four schools. “Kids are not used to being pushed this hard. We really challenged them.” But Seigel said she was impressed by the quality of the work, as she happily watched about 100 people looking at the display at Friday’s opening of the art exhibit.

Seigel said students were urged to express themselves. In one project, the students traced each other on paper, then painted clothes on the figures to make them look like kings and queens.

A mask made from plaster and molded from a child’s face was added to make the work three-dimensional. Each figure also wore a gold glitter-covered crown. The figures were then painted in purple, turquoise and blue and were among the crowd’s favorites Friday.

The exhibit includes oversized cups and saucers like those from “Alice in Wonderland” and tree branches covered with cloth, colored wire rings and other ornaments to make them look like scepters.

“This will encourage children with art talents to see themselves as real artists,” said Debbie McCormick, principal of Jefferson Elementary School, which had 25 student participants.

One of the Jefferson students was Erika Gonzalez, who drew herself playing a saxophone in a room full of flowers and bright-colored curtains.

Gonzalez, 10, a fourth-grader, said it was fun to see people looking at her painting and admiring it.

“It makes me feel proud and important,” Gonzalez said.