WETHERSFIELD - by Mark DiPaola

      

       Libraries are a nice escape, with their seemingly endless array of books, many of which can transport us, mentally, to another world.

       Artwork can do this as well, and throughout the month of February the Wethersfield Public Library will have both. Start at the back right of the building’s middle floor and make your way through a gallery that will take you everywhere from the Star Wars universe to the jungle, then try to wrap your head around the fact that the drawings and paintings were created by kids from the ages of six to 16.

       The display has been set up by the Wethersfield Academy of the Arts and features students as well as the work of instructor Nick Fasco.

       “It’s mostly just for the kids,” Fasco said. “I have my stuff up there, but the kids’ stuff is right out in front.”

       George Lucas characters, the protagonist of the popular video game Assassin’s Creed, and creatures from the Chronicles of Narnia book series are amongst the images that color the library’s walls and these are not your average half scribbled doodles.

       Fasco remembers the reactions he got when he was first putting up the display. People assumed that the jaw dropping sketches and paintings were his.

       “I was like, ‘this isn’t my artwork’,” Fasco said. “They’re all my students’.”

       A drawing or painting will typically take a student six to eight weeks to complete, Fasco said. But that has not stopped some of the young artists from having three or four of their pieces on display. One student, Jared Turner, 14, created the Star Wars and Chronicles of Narnia sketches.

       “He’s a prodigy,” Fasco said of Turner. “It looks like an adult did it.”

       Fasco seems to have a whole class of prodigies on his hand. The library’s gallery currently holds strikingly realistic images of everything from rustic scenery to exotic animals. The opening reception for the exhibit drew around 30 people, Fasco said.

       “They told us if we can’t keep quiet, we’re going to have to leave,” Fasco recalled with a laugh. “[The reception] was really nice, except almost getting thrown out.”