By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Art students from East St. John High School have unleashed a splash of color on the parish’s new home for stray animals.

Four students from the high school’s Visual Talented Arts Program have spent the past few months designing and painting a series of portraits to hang on the walls of the new St. John Animal Shelter, which opened to the public earlier this year. The portraits were unveiled, arranged and hung late last week.

“They are just wonderful,” said shelter manager Linda Allen. “They really brighten the lobby up nice. I’m so proud of the work these kids have done.”

Allen said the idea behind the paintings came while the new shelter was still under construction, when VTAP teacher Carol Jane Myers approached her about adding some kind of art to the new building.

“The kids walked through the kennel to get a visual of the walls to determine what they needed,” Allen said. “They took pictures of some of the animals already in the shelter for inspiration for their work.”

Myers explained the original idea was to paint a series of murals straight onto the walls, similar to the ones adorning various walls inside the high school. The project eventually evolved into something much more personal.

“A mural is a large undertaking, and I think the students were more comfortable painting the separate portraits on their own time,” Myers said. “It offered us more freedom to pick and choose the arrangements.”

East St. John High School seniors Myron Lee, Terri Scott and Marissa Leathers, along with recent graduate and current Nicholls State student Kendall Andrews, spent the past few months creating the portraits. They even stretched and fashioned their own canvas bases. Scott said the project was a labor of love born out of a willingness to sacrifice time at the shelter.

“I’ve always wanted to volunteer at the shelter but could never come up with a way to do it,” Scott said. “I see this as my way of giving back.”

The portraits are dominated by vivid colors and careful detail. A handful even resemble the work of famed New Orleans artist George Rodrigue, whom the students visited during a trip to the French Quarter earlier this year.