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NewsOutside the linesKat Madariaga
At 6’3” and 253 pounds, tight end Vernon Davis is considered to be one of the most physically gifted athletes in all of football. Davis makes his living playing on Sundays inside the lines, but in his spare time, Davis daringly travels outside of those lines with his artistic nature.
Most people may not know this, but Davis majored in Studio Art at the University of Maryland and is quite the artist. He put that creative juice to work this past Tuesday with a group of underprivileged children at the Triton  Museum in Santa Clara. The group, consisting of children from the Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley and students from Buchser, Don Callejon, Cabrillo and Peterson Middle Schools gathered at the Triton for an after school Studio Art program co-taught by none other than the 49ers starting tight end. The lesson began with a tour of the Museum’s new exhibit, Bob Nugent, Under the Canopy. Nugent’s works take an abstract look at nature as the California artist uses mysterious ways to paint landscapes. In his work, which primarily focuses around the Amazon, Nugent relies on different painting and drawing techniques to create textures and depth. “We want this to be an opportunity for the children to explore and to experiment, not to get hung up about the finished product,” said Nikki Franklin, Art Educator at Triton Museum. “I saw a lot of pictures that are really nice,” said Osvald, a student at Peterson Middle School. “I saw one that I really liked. One also had a face that was really creepy. I like art because I like to be creative and it’s my favorite subject.” After the tour, the group moved into classroom where they experimented with Nugent’s techniques. The group quickly got to work and was taught how to use acrylic paints thinly to look like watercolors, thickly to create texture, how to use ready-made images from nature, and how to incorporate torn paper and stenciling techniques into their own masterpieces. “I’m working on a bird. I’m going to glue the bird on a piece of paper, color it, decorate it with all kinds of different stuff and then I’m going to dry it,” explained Roxxy, a 9-year-old member of the Silicon Valley Boys & Girls Club. “My favorite colors are green, orange, yellow and blue, and what I like about art is that you can paint whatever you like and you can decorate it and you can draw whatever you like on it.” “Some of the things I was working on was patterns, making things thin or thick or using little tricks to make it into a certain way that you like,” added Geraldy, another Boys & Girls Club member. “I like making the patterns and shapes. Art shows your feelings inside and lets them all out. Coming here gives me a chance to learn more and gives me more exciting things to do.” After demonstrating their own creativity in front of Davis and getting guidance from Ms. Franklin, the group listened as Davis showed off three of his own pieces of art and answered questions. “Art definitely helps you express yourself,” Davis told the kids. “If you can imagine yourself going to a quiet place, playing your music and just sitting down and painting away, pretty much anything that’s on your mind or something you thought about during that week or that day, it could be anything. That’s what I do.” Davis earned high praise for his work from the head instructor in Franklin, who hopes seeing a football player’s work would inspire this young group of aspiring artists to stick with their passion. “I think Vernon’s paintings are very expressive,” said Franklin. “It looks like he really enjoys his work. I think it’s really nice that he talks to the kids about their own work, because although he’s a football player, there is something else besides that about him and that’s really good for young people to see. Especially young boys, when they get to that 9, 10, 11 age, they give up a lot of this kind of thing. It’s nice for them to see that there’s more to Vernon than just being a football player.”  With continued school budget cuts, enrichment programs are slowly and unfortunately being removed from the daily curriculum. The non-profit and free-to-the-public Triton Museum is an asset for the entire community, helping to showcase California artists and offering programs for adults and youth. “Art is just being eroded from their schools in many ways. It’s really nice when children can come here because not only do they have the opportunity of working directly with artists that have been in the field for a long time, but they also have the opportunity to see artwork,” said Franklin. “It kind of debunks this whole idea that a gallery isn’t for them – that it’s some kind of elitist thing. When they come here they realize there is really some great artwork and they really enjoy the projects that we do.” In the past, the Triton went into the school districts and often provided the only art education any of the kids had. Although the museum primarily offers classes on its own campus these days, the Museum still extends its reach by going into Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and into the Valley Medical Center to provide bedside and classroom art instruction for long-term, critically ill children and adults. “If we can’t get everybody to walk through our doors, we’re going to take the art out to them,” said Preston Metcalf, Manager of External Affairs and Associate Curator at the Triton. “We try to get kids to look at the world in a slightly different way – look at the meaning of things, look at the emotion of an object,” Metcalf continued. “While on the one hand we’re teaching children to draw and paint and do the technical aspect of it, we’re also trying to teach them how to see, how to look at the world, interpret it, and put it down on paper or canvas.” Starting programs like this not only got the vote of the kids in attendance, but also the vote of Davis. “It’s a good thing to have the kids come here to the museum and learn like this. It teaches them not just art, but how to get along with other students and work as a unit.” The students left with their artwork, a deeper understanding and appreciation for the field and one final thought from Davis. “The number one thing I would want them to leave with is that a lot of kids have it in their heads that they have to be perfect, that a painting has to look like this or that. But there’s no right or wrong way to do it. You can do it whatever way you want.”
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