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From October 30 to December 15, the Von Auersperg Gallery displayed the works of Deerfield Academy’s Visual and Performing Arts Teachers Angel Abreu ’92, Mercedes Taylor, and Tim Trelease as part of the Visual Arts Faculty Exhibit. They represented a variety of art styles and mediums that were a culmination of years of dedicated work. Mr. Abreu, Mrs. Taylor, and Mr. Trelease come from different backgrounds that influenced their styles and methods of art. Mr. Abreu, Deerfield alumnus, pursued art due to his supportive teachers. As a freshman at Deerfield, he was among the youngest artists ever featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s collections. Mrs. Taylor, on the other hand, grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and often visited the nearby art museum Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes with her family. Additionally, she comes from a family of artists, such as her grandfather and his brother, so she was raised with art playing a central role in her life, later pursuing an art major in college. According to Mr. Trelease, he started his work as an artist thanks to his many great teachers. He underscores his uncle’s role as a visual artist and as a teacher who gave him his first art lessons and materials. While abroad in Italy, Mr. Trelease was pursuing an undergraduate degree and his roommate, at the time, was a full-time teacher at Choate. After being shown around the school, Mr. Trelease immediately fell in love with teaching and eventually came to Deerfield. Mr. Abreu, who previously believed he would never become a teacher, took the job at Deerfield in 2020 at the suggestion of his former Deerfield art teacher, David Dickinson, who was about to retire. Mrs. Taylor’s career as an art teacher was also unexpected, as she began as a Spanish teacher. When explaining how she transitioned into an art teacher, Mrs. Taylor said, “Art was something I had done all my life, and I just wanted to share what I did, share my passion, with students.” According to Mr. Abreu, Mrs. Taylor, and Mr. Trelease, teaching students widened their views on art and enhanced their artistic experiences greatly. For example, Mrs. Taylor said, “I wanted to show a range in the things that interested me and in the things that I did because I’m always aware that I’m a teacher and also an artist.” Furthermore, teaching allowed them to collaborate with their students and create a community among artists. Many of Mr. Abreu’s works in the Von Auersperg Gallery come from his collaborations with Deerfield and outside students. Mr. Trelease, who works alone in his studio in Maine when he’s not teaching, said, “I like being an artist educator. When I’m working with students here at Deerfield, it’s really…like we’re making art together. I feel like part of who I am as an artist is an artist educator.” For Mr. Abreu, Mrs. Taylor, and Mr. Trelease, their main goals as teachers are to support and inspire their students. They chose to display their works in the Von Auersperg Gallery so that their students could observe and take inspiration from them. Mr. Abreu explained the purpose of the exhibit, saying, “We have some incredible talent [at Deerfield]. We, as their teachers, are making sure that their talents are getting cultivated and developed in ways that will help them go on to the next level. So, we think it’s important, not only to our own students, but to the greater community, to be able to show what we do. And, as seen in the gallery, the work we do is very varied, but the thing that brings us all together is our commitment to our students.” The three artists each have unique art styles. Mr. Abreu’s work is more abstract and often connects to philosophical thought. He believes art should entice questions from the observer. Many of his works displayed in the Von Auersperg Gallery, such as his work based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, are a composition of works he and his students made at a workshop hosted by the University of Massachusetts. In his work based on the play, Mr. Abreu and his students experimented with many unique materials, such as fruit juice. They created flowers out of fruit juice, and Mr. Abreu placed them on panels lined with music notes, composing a larger work. This was inspired by the trickster Puck, who lives in a fairy world where beings fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking up. He would place flowers on sleeping beings’ eyes, which gave Mr. Abreu the idea. Mrs. Taylor’s works, on the other hand, were based on observations and inspired by poems on nature, such as her work of the view from The Rock. Her main works began with her observations of trees and the woods on her walks and from her backyard. Rather than focusing on the trees and leaves, she focuses on the space between them. After many observations and sketches, she created abstract paintings that captured geometric shapes in the spaces as they began to be one. While Mrs. Taylor understands that some people may not understand her work, she, like Mr. Abreu, hopes it will evoke questions and interpretations. Mr. Trelease’s first work consists of illustrations for a limited edition book that he plans to publish. Inspired by Mr. Trelease’s last conversation with his late uncle, the art work acts as a tribute to him. Mr. Trelease’s other collection of works, a combination of paintings and photographs, addresses climate change and the chaos in society. His character paintings depict messengers of the past that are sent to warn us of the future, while his paintings of the ruins of Rome represent the fall of a great civilization. Mr. Trelease is currently creating works based on the state of Maine, where he hopes to capture the natural beauty surrounding his home. Mrs. Taylor hopes to continue with her series of works displayed in the gallery. Finally, some of Mr. Abreu’s new and old works will be displayed in a gallery in London soon.

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On Sunday, November 5, in the Wachsman Concert Hall, Deerfield music students performed in the third annual Bach Festival to celebrate the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. This was the festival’s biggest year with over 20 performers. Piano Studio Director Yu-Mei Wei created the festival two years ago, first as a mini-festival consisting mostly of […]

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