Viewing bright images splashed across walls and perched on pedestals, a vivid world snaps into focus: churches, farm scenes, chickens, and freshly harvested crabs and fish, all rendered in joyful colors.
The playful pictures and sculptures are imaginative — but also perfectly familiar to eighth-grader Ja’Shayla Scarborough.
“I love it, actually,” Ja’Shayla said, during a visit to Â鶹ąŮÍř’s Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries with classmates from her school, YELLOWHAB in Norfolk. “It really gives you the life of the Eastern Shore and how it is, down to the watermelon and the crabs. It’s amazing how specific she is in her paintings.”
She had not heard of Mary Elizabeth “MAMA-Girl” Onley, but after strolling through the Gordon Art Galleries exhibition celebrating the late folk artist, Ja’Shayla emerged a fan.
“It’s very fun,” she said of the collected work. “I really relate to it. I feel like I know her, but at the same time, I don’t. Most of my dad’s family lives on the Eastern Shore.”
This eureka moment didn’t arrive by accident. It was helped along by five Â鶹ąŮÍř Art Education students. Guided by their Elementary Methods teacher, Dr. Tamryn McDermott, they built a set of lesson plans related to the “MAMA-Girl!” exhibition.
The YELLOWHAB visit gave this quintet of developing teachers a chance to try out their work.
Stephanie Crock introduced the children to MAMA-Girl’s personal style of abstraction. Lamarah Gonzalez talked to them about the artist and how she created a sense of place. Naya Medy talked about one of the artist’s favorite images, the watermelon. Carissa Cox introduced the idea of symbolism as the students gazed on the exhibit’s colorful paintings and sculptures made from newspaper and glue.
“It’s really fun and bright and unique, but there’s a story behind it,” Cox told the young visitors.
Dashiell Quasebarth, literacy instructor for YELLOWHAB, said the Gordon Art Galleries field trip was a hit with his students — called explorers.Â
“From a pedagogical standpoint, the Â鶹ąŮÍř students were well-planned and prepared for the visit,” he wrote in a message a few days later. “They were knowledgeable on their individual topics and also felt comfortable to tag in others who may have more expertise on a certain topic which is important in today's world of education, where teachers are not the dispenser of information but rather a facilitator to help pursue information of value.”
Â鶹ąŮÍř’s budding teachers hope their lesson guide will enjoy a long and active life.
“If the show travels, or if it’s online, teachers would be able to bring up these lesson plans,” said Deborah Ward, another of the Old Dominion students who shaped the lessons. “We’re very excited about that,” she said. “We all loved the show.”
The idea of creating a MAMA-Girl lesson guide originated in conversations between McDermott and Galleries Director Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth. McDermott wanted students in her Elementary Methods course to work in a museum or gallery setting right along with their required student teaching. When she learned that MAMA-Girl! exhibition curator Cullen Strawn planned to assemble a catalogue for his exhibition, she saw an opportunity.
“There was a potential to have this set of lessons my students designed be paired with the catalogue,” she said. “It would be great if it were available on the Gordon Art Galleries website so that the resources are more broadly accessible and distributed. There are many ways we could get the word out about it. But that's the ideal.”
The concept aligns with MAMA-Girl’s generous spirit.
“It’s exciting to think of others beyond the university benefitting from the great work that the students have done — work encouraging children and all people to pick up everyday materials and create, just like MAMA-Girl would have wanted,” said Strawn, Old Dominion’s executive director for the arts.
The Old Dominion Art Education students certainly benefitted from the experience, McDermott said.
“I think for my students, it was inspiring for them to be immersed in the work, to be surrounded by a wide range of subject matter and ideas from one artist,” she said. “Art is a method of communication. For our students to understand that words and images have a lot of impact and send some very strong message, that’s an important part of our students’ education.”
The exhibition “MAMA-Girl!” closes Saturday, May 10.