Every year the month of October kicks off with the excitement of leaves falling and a chilly breeze in the air, but every October ends with the exhilaration of one of the most anticipated holidays of the year. While Halloween brings the familiar carving of pumpkins, the creative costumes, the supersized bags of candy, and the spooky thrills of haunted houses and Mischief Night, Darien High School annually contributes one thing to make the hallway atmosphere extra spooky: monsters. DHS’s 4th annual Monster Invasion art gallery is once again displayed in the hallways, and is sure to send chills down students’ backs in time for Halloween.

Mr. Sorensen, a prized teacher of the art department, teaches Art History this year, one of the many classes that had art featured in the exhibit, which opened Thursday, October 27th. Sorensen said that art history focused on "the art of darkness" and "the mysterious gothic meaning of art" as themes for this year’s Monster Gallery.  "Art history studies the primitive culture that shows the dark side of life," Sorensen said. Senior Veronika Kelemen commented about enjoyment of the class "because you learn about history without the tests."

The Halloween exhibit features everything from sketched ghosts to computer designed spooks to life-sized monsters sculpted out of paper mache. One of the featured artists is junior Lauren Pryor who is currently taking Drawing and Painting 2 with Ms. Katie Stuart. Pryor said the inspiration for her monster artwork was "aspects of nature" and she wanted to make the texture of the piece realistic.  "For the project we had to bring in textures to glue down on the canvas, then we put a white paint called gesso on top so the surface was the same color to watercolor paint over it," Pryor said.  

Senior artist and art history student Oscar Parsons took a different approach to the project. His monster painting "scares you psychologically," Sorensen said of Parson’s work.

The random thoughts portrayed in the painting make it more complex.

Creating monster artwork is as much fun for the artists as it is for the people who get to view the spectacles. "I enjoy this project because it takes you out of that comfortable zone. It goes deeper into a physiological meaning behind the art history," Sorensen said. Junior Drawing and Painting artist Marshall McGee said that the project involved a lot of creativity. Sophomore Dylan Bravo, who has two life-size monsters on display in the F wing, says that the monster project is the reason he has taken Sculpture for two consecutive years.

Visit The Monster Photo Gallery

The Monster Gallery is the most popular art exhibit that DHS hosts, and it is the repeatedly positive student response that keeps it coming back each year. Bravo says what makes the Monster Gallery so successful is that it is a community contribution—it features artwork from a variety of art classes offered at DHS and even work from Middlesex Middle School and various elementary schools. The exhibit connects the different schools and classes to form a group of talented artists that are passionate about art.

"It's so successful because it deviates from what most think of when they think of art," McGee said. "In this project the goal is to make it look as putrid and disgusting as possible."

Thursday night finished off with a chilling Halloween concert performed by both the 8th grade and DHS orchestras. The playlist featured Highlights from Harry Potter as well other haunted tunes such as Waltz of the Goblins. DHS’s own Mr. Ralph Chianelli did a spectacular job narrating "The Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe as part of the DHS orchestra’s performance. A highlight of the ensemble was the zombie costumes that the performers wore, each played with a ripped shirt, white face paint, and splattered "blood". The concert and the monster art truly made it feel like Halloween had arrived and was infectious among the students at DHS.