Artwork produced by students from three Loudoun County schools – Stone Bridge High School, Sterling Middle School and Mountain View Elementary – will be part of an artwork titled “HELLO AND WELCOME!” at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), HELLO AND WELCOME! will feature the students’ self-portraits in a large-scale modular display. This display will be placed in the Federal Inspections Service area on the airport’s Concourse C, where many international travelers are received. The three Loudoun County schools will be joined in this project by seven schools representing Fairfax and Prince George’s counties and the District of Columbia.

Helping the students execute their self-portraits will be artist Catherine Judge of Fitchburg, Mass. Judge will be visiting the three Loudoun schools during the second semester with the goal of having their artwork permanently displayed at Dulles by early 2011.

The Airports Authority Arts Program will provide the selected schools with pastels and drawing paper to be used for this project. The portraits to be included in the project will be fabricated into a durable material for permanent installation.

Individual portraits created by students may be displayed at other public areas in the airport.

Working with Judge and their classroom teacher, students will learn the art of portraiture. Each student is expected to create a smiling front-view self-portrait that captures his or her unique personality. Students may also team with another classmate to create portraits of each other. Students also will be asked to write, in their own handwriting, the words, “Hello” and “Welcome.” The handwritten words will be fabricated and incorporated into the overall display. A student may write the words in his or her native language, if they choose.

Judge is an inter-media artist who utilizes a variety of media in her work. Trained as a traditional painter, she found that her paintings became sculptures and that her sculptures became installations and that now her installations have become drawings, which in turn become paintings and videos.

She has taught courses in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art disciplines at museums, colleges and universities. Judge’s artwork has been exhibited throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan.