From drawings to paintings to sculpture–the range was wide month the six students who advanced to state in Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) on February. 21 in Lubbock.
Junior Austin Peters, for instance, advanced with a drawing entitled Tunnel Vision made with colored pencils on black paper to look like a collage of doodles.
“The hardest part was coming into class and finding a new doodle to start on every day,” Peters said. “It’s just an expression of creativity showing my own creativity.”
Senior Ashton Booth, who qualified for state a second time, won with a sculpture made of paper mache, chicken wire, wire and metal entitled Tapes of the Undead.
“I was kind of like a memory monster,” Booth said. “It was the undead memories in the back of your mind. Every once in a while this creature comes back to play my memories, go and bad. It helps me learn from past mistakes and past victories.”
Booth worked on several pieces for the contest.
“I did expect it,” Booth said. “I just didn’t want to get too cocky or too bigheaded.”
Freshman Lilly Hill won with a polymer and wire sculpture she named Insanity.
“It depicted my three characters, Schotinger, Ellie and Mannequin,” Hill said. “The meaning behind my piece is it depicts a time in my life when I felt really depressed. The cat shows how I would treat people around me. I wouldn’t physically attack, just emotionally. Ellie is my mom and the Mannequin is my issues themselves which I was trying to attack but ended up harming others.”
Senior Amber Wallis constructed a sculpture of a deer called The Innocents Fight Back.
“I used aluminum foil for the base of the deer to get the structure made,” Wallis said. “I used polymer clay to add details. I went with painting it black for depth and dry brushed it brown for that baby fawn pattern and went back in with white dots. I made the base with wood paper mache and made it black for depth and dry brushed it green to have a vibrant vibe. I then made leaves out of paper like big grass blades and put resin inside to make it look like water.”
Wallis’s piece was made with the intent of commenting on pollution.
“It shows that mother nature is fighting back in ways we people would never think of,” Wallis said. “I included the land for pollution of land and the water for pollution of water.”
Senior Anna Harder will be making a third trip to state, this time with her oil painting self-portrait Sinner.
“It was a girl with some sort of creature behind her blocking her eyes from the light,” Harder said. “It’s kind of about my personal struggle with religion and the rules that come with it.”
The last qualifier is junior Victoria Baros with a mixed media piece titled The Other Side, showing a figure looking in the mirror and seeing a skeletal reflection.
“It’s basically about how people are never satisfied with their lives or with things, so they’re always wanting more,” Baros said. “They want their life to change but won’t put in the work to change it. It’s like the phrase ‘The grass is greener on the other side’, but often times it’s not.”
Part of the competition is for each artist to be interviewed by a judge.
“She asked me what the piece was about, what it meant to me and about the process,” Baros said. “She asked me if she gave me all the materials I need right now what would I change, and I said there’s nothing I would really change.”
Booth’s biggest worry involved his unwieldy sculpture.
“It was very stressful having to unpack it,” Booth said. “Also trying not to drop it and having to worry about the electrical components and having to plug it in. Other than that I left my judge rather speechless.”
The artist’s designated juror or judge gave each a score during the interview based on factors about the artwork itself, how they explained their artwork and the meaning behind.
“[The interview] went fine,” Hill said. “She asked a couple questions about my art piece, and I answered. I told her how the toys represented my innocence because they’re dirty, and how they represented how I was mistreated by other kids around me in Hobbs.”
If the artists are able to score between 51-60 points in their interviews, their artwork would then make it into the room where multiple judges decided which ones would go to state.
“It went really really well,” Wallis said. “My juror was surprised when I pulled [my deer] out. She didn’t see that it had teeth because from one angle it looked innocent and cute, then she saw the teeth and was like ‘Whoa’.”
For Harder, the interview was more like a discussion.
“It’s hard to explain,” Harder said. “I just went into the room, and she asked me to explain my piece so I did. Then she gave me feedback, and we just had a conversation about it.”
For Peters, finding out he had made it was grueling since his name was one of the last to be called.
“I’m going to say, yes, I did expect it,” Peters said. “My main idea was to just go into everything with such a positive attitude to make myself believe I was going to make it. It was the most hype moment of my life. I thought I was not going to make it, and then they called my name right as I lowered my head.”
At the contest as the state qualifiers were announced, they were asked to come on stage and hold their artwork.
“I had the fattest smile on my face,” Wallis said. “I was kind of expecting it when they announced mine last. It made me very happy to be able to walk on stage and hold my piece.”
Baros was not present when they announced the pieces that advanced to state due to her needing to be at district SkillsUSA contest in Odessa.
“We had been home for about an hour after we got back from our award ceremony for Skills,” Baros said. “I was telling my mom about Skills, and suddenly I got a lot of notifications on my phone. I was like ‘What?!” and the realization set in, and I was like jumping. I had like 15 people tell me about it.”
The students’ artwork will be judged at state on April 24-25 at San Marcos High School.
