By EMMA THOR
“Every time he walked in the room the class lit up,”said Michelle Zink class of 2011.
Zink was one of the students that Basil Demase taught at Eisenhower Middle School for over 39 years.
“Mr. Demase awarded me a prize for winning the peace poster drawing contest” said Rebecca Wilkin.
“I was very thankful for his encouragement,” Mr Demase was always very kind and patient with students and he motivated me to pursue my passion in art. Art class was my favorite class in middle school because of him. He has great sense of humor and his creativity and passion transferred to his students,”said Wilkin.
Demase worked as an art teacher at Eisenhower Middle School for 39 years. Since he was young he always loved art as hobby and throughout school. Loved working with people. Combining Art and Teacher was ideal for him.
He left a long lasting impresson on the 8th grade students that he taught over the years. Demase taught at a time when the art program in public schools were flourishing.
But in recent years, the decline of art programs in public schools have left current day student without the influence of creative teachers like Demase.
According to Pew research 23% of people say art skills are most important for children to get ahead in the world today.
Demase had a project that many 8th graders looked forward to the portrait project.”On the first day of class students would ask me when are we going to do the portrait project,”said Demase .
“To this day whenever I am at the grocery store or at the gym, local restaurant its great to see my former students and they talk about the portrait project,” said Demase.
This portrait project became more popular when the portraits would be hung in the cafe and kids would be into it.
The Portrait Making Process
The portrait project is where you paint a portrait of a famous person living or dead. Each painting there has it owns story.
The process to make the portrait. You pick a famous person Print a picture of the famous person.
You outline the picture with a black pen. You trace it on the projector with a pencil. You put the numbers that represents the color code sheet black gray , white. Then you paint the sections of the portrait. Then you do the background of the portrait
After it dries students can hang the portrait in the cafeteria for the semester. Once the semester is over students take it home and the story goes on from there.
In this class you go at different paces some could be tracing phase while come people are doing the color coding phase but in the end everyone gets to take home piece of art that they will cherish forever.
Demase Famous Quote
Demase always had his famous line Stick with Peace. “This phrase represents the hippie peace love and harmony mind set of my generation”said Demase
” I took tape from the tape dispenser to tape paper down. I would take two pieces of tape and put it on middle and index finger” said Demase.
“I would take tape off the index finger and it would make sticky sound making it stick with peace,”said Demase .
A Facebook post garnered of more than 40 responses of former students who had Demase.
Some the portraits painted Jon Stewart, Beyonce , Lady Gaga , Jonas Brothers, Robert Downey Jr , Ann Curry ,Taylor Swift from public figures to movie stars.
“I did Johnny Depp because I am a big fan of Depp,” said Heidi Jones class of 1989.
“I chose Andre Angassi because I was getting into playing tennis at the time and liked watching him play,” said Jennifer Bahadurian class of 1992.
Rebecca Wilkin 20 year old Leigh University – Eisenhower class of 2010
“I chose Taylor Swift because at the time I really enjoyed her music and I looked up to her as a role model,”.
“I painted Nick Jonas because at the time Jonas Brothers were my favorite band and he was my favorite member,”said Alexa Caruso 20 University of Michigan – class of 2010.
Suzanne Abribat 20 George Mason University class of 2010
“I did Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes because at that time it was favorite movie,” said Abribat
Tom Nieradka class of 2003 chose Don King American boxing promoter I liked his larger than life persona I happened to pull out of the closet and we smiled when we found it. Such a memorable project.
Steph Zmuda class of 2010 said, “I chose to do Johnny Depp as the mad hatter and I chose to do him because I am very big fan of Johnny Depp and that was his most recent movie.”
“The portrait is hanging in my basement,” said Zmuda.
Nicolle Glover 21 Eisenhower Middle School class of 2009. “I painted Joe Anderson because at the time of the project I really liked the movie Across the Universe and one of my friends drew the other lead actor in Across the Universe so we wanted to match them . Right the portrait is still in a frame it leans against my desk in my room.”
Kendall Dacey class of 2005: painted Rachel Bilson from the OC was popular during that time period .
Tyler Franco Eisenhower Middle School class of 2001: “I did Britney Spears and its my parents house,”.
Brandon Nicodemo class of 2007 painted Patrick Ellias who is one of his favorite devils player and it hangs in my bedroom.
Matt Nicodemo class of 2007 Shaun White was chosen because he is a snowboarder and a big fan. Shaun is in our attic now and but enjoyed a prime spot in my college apartment not too long ago.
Mike Nicodemo class of 2007 painted this for my Dad as gift and it is in our family room.
Vincent Gunn Eisenhower Middle School class of 2010 “I did Ray Bolger as the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz,”.
“I chose him because the wizard of oz is my all time favorite movie,”said Gunn.
“The portrait is currently hanging in my bedroom,”said Gunn.
“I did Taylor Swift because she was my favorite musician in middle school,” said Grace Tellado 20 Eisenhower Middle School class of 2010
It got thrown out one year when cleaning the basement,”said Tellado.”I really loved doing the project I wanted to keep the memory of doing the project in her mind that keeping the physical project,”said Tellado.
Zach Moore class of did Julius Erving who was number 32 of the NYC Nets because all my life I always loved playing sports and watching sports”.
“One of the memorable portraits was Ann Curry because of the history behind it. That student got to go to the Today Show and have Ann Curry sign it,”said Demase
“I wanted students to do a project do a portrait painting that goes from lightness to darkness white to gray which is opaque and have color value as background,” said Demase.
Here is a video of past 8th grade portraits.
Future of Art Programs
“There is a program called Teen Arts Festival l where I used to take group of students to participate in visual arts component of the festival,”said Demase.
” Since retirement I still work with them the organizers of this festival and I critique the students artwork as adjunct,”said Demase.
For the students in the Class of 2010, the portrait project will forever be memorable project.
Especially for Class of 2010 because they were the last students to ever have M.r Demase.
The new art teacher Monique Sarfity did the similar portrait project with the Eisenhower Class of 2012.
Class of 2012 were the last class to do the similar portrait project.
Lia Calo Class of 2012 – ” Ms Sarfity actually did the same project just with my grade because we were the last graduating class at Eisenhower that had expected to do the portrait,”.
Future Eisenhower Middle Classes will never get the chance to do this project.
You did a good job of reporting this story and showing how much this art teacher means to his students.