Six students had their artwork advance to state in the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) at regional competition in Lubbock on Feb. 22.
State qualifiers include senior Jenna Sales with a mixed media piece, senior Gavin Barringer with a drawing, senior Genavieve Neudorf with a photograph, senior Joshua Teichroeb with a sculpture, junior Ashton Booth with a sculpture and senior Mary Harms with two sculpture pieces. They will attend the state competition on April 25-26 in San Marcos.
In VASE students can enter artwork of any medium, and Sales did hers in a combination of media.
“My piece was called ‘The Newdle Look’,” Sales said. “I used paper mache and caulk to do the hair part, and the rest was painted on a canvas. “The meaning is about how funky looking the hair is and how normal the face is and the clash between the two. It shows how there is no limit in creativity and expressing yourself.””
While students can enter more than one piece in VASE, rarely do they advance to state in more than one like Harms did with ceramic pieces called “The Perversion of Self” and “Lonesome Brewery.”
“It felt very unreal,” Harms said. “I kept thinking that it can’t be me. It’s not possibly me.”
Harms said ‘The Perversion of Self” was a self portrait, while “Lonesome Brewery” was about bottling up her emotions.
While Harms took her inspiration from within, Teichroeb found motivation for his felt sculpture of a sword and shield in class.
“It is called ‘The Needle-felted Saga Bark and Blade’,” Tiechroeb said. “For the shield my friend was making a funny face, and I wanted to do that, so I put it on a shield. The sword was mostly Mr. Autry’s idea, and I went along with it. It turned into a flower sword.”
Booth found inspiration in his clay sculpture “Fixing Broken Dreams” in photos he had seen.
“I wanted to do it based off of pictures I’d seen of these cool looking heads that were appealing,” Booth said. “The meaning behind it is about how people like to think when they go through a traumatic event their body will break. They feel like those pieces are lost, but those pieces are never fully lost. They are just ready to be moved.”
Neudorf’s photo of a firefighter called “Guardian Angel” was not planned ahead of time but taken in the moment.
“I was at the bonfire and thought it looked cool,” Neudorf said, “so I asked a firefighter if I could take a photo of him in front of it. Firefighters symbolize protection just like guardian angels are there to protect you. I also thought that the fire kind of looked like wings.”
Barringer wanted to test his artistic ability with his piece.
“It was a drawing called ‘Ironically Hungry’,” Barringer said. “It was just something different I never usually do to test my artistic ability. I felt like I had a really good chance. I wasn’t too surprised, but I was really happy.”
As part of the judging process to decide who makes it to state the artists were interviewed by a judge.
“The interviews went great,” Harms said. “I was very vulnerable and nervous in there, but both of my judges were great.”
The judge asked questions about the meaning behind the artwork and the steps the artists took to create it.
“The judge asked the first question, so I talked a lot because I didn’t want to be quiet,” Tiechroeb said. “The rest of it went well.”
The interview process helped the artists express their passion for their artwork.
“I wasn’t nervous at all because I love talking to people,” Sales said. “It went really well. I love communicating with people, so it was fun.”
Barringer said he left the interview feeling confident.
“It went really well,” Barringer said. “The longer the interview goes, the better, and mine went really long.”
Only a small percentage of artists make it to state, so they learn not to get their hopes up.
“I wasn’t expecting to make it at all,” Sales said. “I just wanted to make something fun and go for the experience.”
Neudorf took a risk entering a photo.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all, especially not with my photo,” Neudorf said. “I was nervous about the photo since I never entered a photo before.”
Sales was in disbelief when they announced who made it to state.
“It was very surreal,” Sales said. “I couldn’t believe it was happening. I enjoyed it.”
Tiechroeb wasn’t present at the awards, so he had to find out he made it to state through a friend.
“I had gone home before I figured it out,” Tiechroeb said. “People texted me that I made it, so it made the rest of my day pretty good.”
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