Colorful characters

Masks plastered, painted and adorned, channeling Aztec gods, dance and school spirit, were just some of the creations this spring in Aquinas High School's 3-D art class project.

"Their goal was to create a character they might want to portray," said art teacher Garalynn Hauser.

Each teen started with a plastic form, then added plaster.

Aidan Klebba, 16, made a mask of horns attached to a dark red-and-black face.

"My original inspirations were Samurai masks," he said.

The sophomore covered the eye holes with mesh for a darker look. Outside of class, his hobby is making costumes of full armor.

Izzy Sergi created two faces on her mask; the sun shines out of the eye on one side, and a crescent moon curls from the other.

"I like Picasso," said Izzy, 15.

Day and night was also an inspiration for 16-year-old sophomore Alex Rogier. They're separate, but they go together.

"I thought of everyday people," Alex said. "There's something we see, and then there's what we keep inside."

On Abigail Lovas' bright yellow-and-white mask, petals bloom around one eye. Creating equal-size petals was a challenge for the 16-year-old sophomore.

A mask by 17-year-old junior Will Stafford was inspired from a documentary he saw about Aztec pyramids. He created bars of plaster and sprayed with paint for a granite look.

Shelby Jones, 17, thought of a Caribbean vacation. She attached a solid headdress with rhinestones and painted the mask gold and red, colors of the sun.

Robert Turner, 16, plays on the varsity basketball team, and he imagines his character would, too. He painted his mask in school colors and gave it dreads, like his, and a skull cap.

Kateri Sheppard, 17, thought of a dance she has performed, The Robin, so bright paint is feathered across her mask. It also has a gold crown and red feathers, and it's given a bit of flash with rhinestones and glitter.

"I'm a dancer, and we like glitter," she said.

Reach Sarah Day Owen at (706) 823-3223 or sarah.owen@augustachronicle.com.