Local Art Exhibit Honors Newtown Shooting Victims

A unique art exhibition honoring the 20 children who were killed in Newtown, CT last month is now open in Pomona, and the public is welcomed to view the project free of charge.

The artist, a student at Claremont Graduate University, says she first tried to tune out coverage of the shootings and the man behind the tragic attack, but knew at once when victim information was released that she had a project on her hands.

"... when they released the names two days later I thought, 'I can give attention to this; I can bear witness to this.'," Artist Leslie Love Stone said of her work titled They Fill My Eyes.

"I opened the article and saw that it was not a celebration of the lives of 20 children. It was a database listing name, birthdate, gender, and age. In that moment, I knew I had to process the information with art," she said.

Stone-- a former banking executive-- says she's created a series of 20 paintings using a geometric numbering system, and provided the following background on the project to Patch:

• Each piece is painted with Flashe on a 10" x 10" wood panel and conveys data initially released about the children to the news outlets. 
• Each painting is dedicated to a specific child. 
• The color on each indicates whether the child is a boy or girl. 
• The number of colored segments reflects the child's age. 
• The overall number of segments are placed in eight triangular sections from left to right, top to bottom, and show the child's birthdate.  

The exhibit is on display at the Mosaic Gallery, 281 South Thomas Street in Pomona.  It will run through January 31.

The gallery is normally open Monday through Friday, from 1 p.m. through 4 p.m., but will also be open for an artist's reception this Saturday, January 12, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., according to Stone.

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