Artist John Pena — on the heels of having his work displayed at the new $31 million Arts Landing in the Pittsburgh Cultural District — was on hand Tuesday for a mini residency at Highlands High School.
Students in teacher Teresa Emeloff’s mixed media class were treated to hands-on consultations with Pena while working on their show, “The Thing about Things.”
Emeloff said the artist spent time with the aspiring teen artists, suggesting to them ways to refine their art pieces.
The experience was paid through the Art Experience Grant from the Alle-Kiski Arts Consortium.
Pena, whose work “Luggage Thoughts” is on display at the Pittsburgh International Airport baggage claim area, is a multidisciplinary artist who makes art as a way of exploring the natural world and his daily interactions.
An adjunct professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University, he creates comics, sculptures, video works and public art.
His work has included life-sized plaster word balloons balanced on two-by-fours.
His most recent projects include “Larimer Stories,” an ongoing collaboration with senior citizens in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Larimer in which the residents share their lives through photography and storytelling.
Pena challenged students to select an object they find fascinating and re-create it to scale from an entirely different material. The emphasis was on studying the object and brainstorming the ways it could be transformed through new materials.
Student artists included Carson Ankney, Natalie Dickerson, Chloe Fox, Asira Hayden, Evelyn Lanious, Shane Lechner, Emma Martinka, Dylan Odom, Aaron Pochan and Alina Viglione.