Warhol-inspired student self-portraits on display at Hudson Museum

Eighth-graders at the Indian Island School created Andy Warhol-inspired photographic silkscreen self-portraits for their graduation shots.

The student pop art productions, along with several Warhol pieces on loan from the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, are on exhibit in the Minsky Culture Lab in Hudson Museum at the University of Maine.

Michael E. Vermette, Indian Island School art teacher, likes that the project engaged youth to decide, based on their character preferences, how they wanted to represent themselves.

“The most rewarding part of this project was seeing the expressions on each of the students’ faces,” he says. “They were really translated into an Andy Warhol print that they created with their own hands and that made them smile.”

Students found the endeavor challenging and gratifying as well.

“The fun thing…was to experience just how much my portrait looked like me and how I can be in control of the emotions I portray,” writes Apemesim Galipeau.

Mia Sockabasin writes that it was empowering to express herself with the same technique that Warhol — who said everyone would be famous for 15 minutes — used to produce portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

Vermette, who earned a BFA in painting from Maine College of Art and a certificate in art education at UMaine, plans to do the project again because of the positive ways it impacted this year’s eighth-graders.

Jacob Burns, for instance, writes he enjoyed the artistic process and the final result. “I really would not change a thing because I think it looks perfect,” he writes.

An opening reception for the show, titled “Wabanaki Portraits from the Indian Island School,” was held Thursday, July 14. The show will run through the end of August.

Hudson Museum hours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777