Portfolio art class hosts multi-media collage exhibit and speaker

To complement a unit on multi-media collage for portfolio students, art teacher Kristen Spano hosted an exhibit of Laura Breitman’s work in her classroom on Friday, March 22.

Michael Needleman, husband and fellow artist to the late Laura Breitman, introduced the students to the artist’s vision and technique.

“It takes a lot of patience,” Mr. Needleman said. “You can’t rush through stuff like this. And it takes concentration. When Laura was working, nothing else existed.”

Painting? Collage? Photograph? Something of all three. Laura Breitman’s collage work starts with a photograph but slowly morphs into a vivid, 3D-like illusion, as she recreates the image with countless bits of fabric, laid down like layers of paint on a canvas.

Senior Marie Cook was especially inspired by the artist’s treatment of light and shadows, and her extreme use of detail. “Looking at her work already changed my understanding of collage, and I’m changing my idea for my own collage project,” Marie said.

Junior Matthew Poka, who has taken every art and art history course available to him at the High School, is now a student in the portfolio course. His favorite Breitman piece was a depiction of lily pads. “They’re like an architectural design,” Matthew said. “She shows such an understanding of what she’s looking at, and she conveys so much with so little.”

Michael Needleman generously donated Laura’s fabric collection to the art department and created a $1,000 art scholarship for a Warwick Valley senior pursuing a degree in the arts, in memory of his late wife, Laura Breitman.