Jessye Coleman Council of PTAs
Annual Arts Competition
Through January 15, 2005

The PTA/PTSAs of the 18 schools in the Jessye Coleman Council are again participating in the National PTA Reflections Program. Reflections provides students from preschool through grade 12 the opportunity to explore and learn about various art forms.

Students are encouraged to create and submit works of art in four areas: literature, musical composition, photography, and the visual arts (which includes art forms such as drawing, painting, print making, and collage).
 

Oil Painting by Harold "Gene" Mordt
January 16 - February 28, 2005

Mordt, 76 years old, has been painting as a hobby for 8 to 10 years and finds it a relaxing pastime. Moving to West Marietta from Jacksonville, Florida in the early sixties, he was impressed by the number of people in the area interested in art. Mordt paints in oils only on stretched canvas or masonite board. He does not like the term "selftaught" as he believes every painter can use help - be it art books, art videos, or just observing art in museums. Mordt states the best advice he ever recieved was: "Remember, it is not in the hand; it is in the eye.
  

Watercolor and Oil Paintings
by Kamini Jain
May 1 - June 30, 2005

Kamini Jain was born in 1972 in a small village in India. She pursued a career in the medical field. After completing her degree in Auyrvedic medicine, she married and moved to the United States. Jain is a self-taught artist who likes to paint confident women. She uses watercolors and oil paints on canvas. She is best known for painting Indian women in traditional dresses. Her paintings are frequently reflect women's liberation and relevant images of her life in rural India. Jain is presently a homemaker and spends her free time creating paintings that bring back memories from her home town in India.
   

Paul Ostborg's interest in art goes back to childhood when he traveled extensively throughout central and northern Europe, absorbing the work of the masters of the past. His father worked for the Red Cross and traveled with the Red Cross and the U.S. Army. Young Ostborg attended French schools, learning to speak French and German. Some of the young people he attended school with hold prominent positions today.

Later Ostborg joined the Army and spent time in Europe, playing alto saxophone in the Army Band and reuniting with old friends. His only formal training in art has been art history and life drawing. Everything else, he says, has been learned through osmosis, although he believes his training in machine design and drafting has contributed to his understanding of layout and detail in composition. Currently his style is quasi-realistic with a touch of impressionism, but he's done realistic work in pencil, charcoal, oil, and acrylic.
   

Sorina was born and raised in Brasov, Romania. She completed her Bachelor's Degree in Wood Engineering in 1991 at University Transylvania, Brasov. Sorina then continued her studies in Psychology/Sociology at Spiru-Haret University, Brasov. Sorina came to the United States in 1996 to continue her education. She completed her Master's in Applied Psychology in 2000 at Christopher Newport University, VA. During this time Sorina continued to paint, write short stories and poems, and compose music.

Though Sorina has painted for years she has only recently begun to publicly display her work. She works primarily in oils on canvas but has done mixed media, as well. Sorina is currently employed as a Special Education teacher and lives in Cobb County with her two children, 11-year-old Emanuel and 2-year-old David.