‘What’s In a Name?’ Klahre House students unveil new art work

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What’s In a Name?

This project has been both fun and educational. Funded by a grant given to the Klahre House by the Hood River Cultural Trust, we came up with an art project called “What’s In a Name?”

“What’s In a Name” is a project where all participants researched what is in their name: what does it represent, stand for, and mean. Not only does this bring self-awareness, but it may even affect how we see ourselves as a person and how we perceive our heritage and culture.

After learning what our names mean, we came up with a design that would represent our name or names. If someone’s name is Celtic, they may use a Celtic knot as their symbol. These drawings show insight into our lives, how we want to be, and how we want others to perceive us based upon our names.

With our designs drawn out, then we needed to make it into a screen print stencil. Some of our designs had to be changed into something that can be cut out without big holes. For example, an “O” has to have a bridge. Once “stencilized,” we traced our designs onto plastic sheets with sharpie. We then cut out our stencil on the plastic sheet. This helped us to practice patience and many of us changed our design a few times.

Once we cut our design into a stencil, we taped the stencil to the screen. We put our ink onto the screen and spread it over. To make sure our stencils worked, we first printed on paper. We just set the screen down, spread the ink, pushed, and lifted. Then we did the same to our shirt and cloth square.

Finally, we put all of our squares together into a quilt. This quilt combines all of our identities together in an amazing way that represents our similarities and differences in culture and identity. All in all, this project teaches us a lot and gives us new meaning to our names and a new sense of pride.

We would like to thank the Hood River Cultural Trust for the grant that allowed us to do this project, as it was fun and educational. As foster kids, this was an amazing experience and opportunity that would not have been possible without the grant. Also, Kelsey Mosley, an amazing art teacher, helped get this done, and it would not have been possible without her. We also thank the Klahre House staff who participated and helped make this possible. Lastly, we thank everyone who came to our opening at Hawks Ridge. Without you, we would not have had anyone to share this experience with, so thanks.

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