Jessica Garcia Bursts onto LI Art Scene
Jessica Garcia is claiming her rightful place as one of the top young artists on Long Island. The Huntington High School junior is the creator of a mixed media ceramic sculpture that was recently exhibited at the Huntington Art Council’s High Arts Showcase XI at the Main Street Gallery.
Ms. Garcia created the art piece she calls “Dear John” in a Ceramics & Sculpture II class led by teacher Kim Valerio. The 17 year old is also enrolled in Studio in Art.
“The inspiration for my artwork was the movie and book Dear John,” the teenager wrote in an artist’s statement that accompanied her work during the recent exhibit. “I chose to do this piece because I identified with the film’s characters, John and Savannah and with events in the film that were similar to what was happening in my own life.”
During the creative process, the junior first sculpted a ceramic pot before adding assorted details “to represent various items and moments in the film,” Ms. Garcia said. “For example, the coins represent how John’s father became a coin collector because of a valuable mule that his son found. The sand and seashells represent where John and Savannah met on the beach. The moon on the pot refers to when John tells Savannah, ‘If you close one eye and look at the moon with your thumb out on it, your thumb is always bigger than the moon.’ The bullets symbolize John being in the army and getting shot.”
The artwork includes a ceramic piece that was hand lettered by Ms. Garcia’s classmate, Yardalie Daniel, a fellow member of Huntington’s Class of 2016. Ms. Garcia said the letter represents the story’s turning point.
“After writing letters to each other while John is in the army, John becomes upset by what Savannah has written in this particular letter and decides to burn all of their correspondence,” Ms. Garcia explained about the story behind her artwork.