Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: Kayrena Meyers attended her Queensbury High School Senior Class prom on Saturday, May 7, in a “Starry Night” dress she painted herself.
Kayrena tells The Chronicle the dress was her final senior project in Advanced Drawing and Painting. The assignment was to create a large scale work inspired by another artist or art movement. “One of my favorite paintings is ‘The Starry Night’ by Van Gogh and I wanted to try doing something on a different medium,” Kayrena says.
“I found a $40 dress on Poshmark. I didn’t want to spend too much in case it didn’t work out. Not only was it the perfect color and design, it had pockets too!
“I spent about $100 in alterations and $100 in brushes, paint and textile medium.”
She visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City over February break, to view the original painting.
“I noticed that the colors were a lot different in real life than what you see in online images. I spent about 2 weeks researching and learning about other works by Van Gogh to get a full understanding of his style and to learn about mixing paints with textile mediums. It took about 2 months to paint….The fullness of the skirt and recreating something that is originally 2D onto a 3D surface forced me to ‘expand’ the painting and reuse certain patterns, as well as adding in elements of his other paintings.”
Kayrene said, “It turned out better than I hoped! When I look at my original concept sketches compared to the final product, I am more than happy with how it turned out.
“I had to do the painting in sections, allowing the paint to dry before moving onto the next section, and taking it in sections made me excited to see how the next part would turn out.
“I got a lot of compliments both at the prom and on Instagram. A lot of teachers took pictures of it and a lot of my friends said it was their favorite dress.
“My boyfriend especially liked it and he said he was so proud of my work!”
“I haven’t gotten my grade yet,” Kayrena said, “but judging from my teacher’s reaction and the way she brought me around the school to show people, I think I passed!”
How was the senior prom? “It was very nice to be with my friends after being isolated for so long. It was a great way to end my senior year and I had a lot of fun. It was definitely a night I’ll never forget!”
Next year, Kayrena tells us, she plans to attend Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., to major in Expressive Arts Therapy.
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