Three Chuck Close-style grid portraits were created by Chris Cerniglia's 8th grade art students at Scarlett Middle School last academic quarter.

Two multi-colored portraits - featuring Oprah Winfrey and Johnny Depp, in character as Captain Jack Sparrow - were recently displayed at community events at the southeast Ann Arbor school. Fifty 8th grade Scarlett art students helped create these two pieces.

A third grid portrait is a State of Michigan-honored piece, chosen to be part of a statewide student art exhibit. Cerniglia is proud of each of the unique pieces the students produced.

All pieces used similar techniques with paint on panels but with different backgrounds. Some used cardboard while others used matte board and, by way of experimentation, discovered for themselves which held up better in the process. All panels were then assembled and mounted onto frames.

Art teacher Cerniglia points out that these portraits are abstract because each individual panel was created by the students in isolation from each other and from the whole, without knowing how it would all piece together.

Ann Farnham is a mother of two, community volunteer, and abstract art lover. Follow her on Ann of Ann Arbor.