Sophomore Margaret Fang on her piece, “Looking Into Another School Bus,” said, “Ms. Gilfedder was my main inspiration for this piece. She assigned this project as an opportunity for us to capture aspects of real life. I see school buses every day, and I think this piece reminds us of how the school bus is an important aspect of a typical high school student’s life." Fang used a palate knife painting and scraping technique for this work. "I was so surprised when I found out that I won an award. Winning an award helped me realized that I have somewhat of an artistic talent and allowed me to not completely rule out pursuing a career in art,” she said.
By SABRINA WONG
Among Jericho High School’s submissions to the annual Scholastic Art and Writing competition this year were an impressive 12 Gold Key winners. Several of the recipients shared their award-winning artwork, the meaning behind their pieces, and their thoughts on winning.
Senior Marti Rose Shanker has an artistic eye and is drawn to graphic patterns and textures as one can see in her piece “Cracked Lips.” She said of this work, “The majority of my pieces portray some element of design such as repetition or value. I also love playing with color by layering multiple photos on top of each other. I wanted to create a piece that was compelling and that would have an emotional impact on the viewer as well as attract many artists for its colors and patterns.”
On being recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Shanker said, “I’m very happy about winning a Gold Key award. I’m so proud of myself. All of my hard work has paid off. It makes me feel really good because I also was awarded multiple Gold Key Awards throughout my four years of high school. Knowing that I was part of the 1% out of thousands and thousands of submissions, I feel very grateful, and maybe it’s giving me the boost of confidence I need to continue artwork.”
Junior Chloe Citron combines images and text in her piece “Real Artist.” She said, “I have to make a bunch of pieces for my AP portfolio concentration, and for that I’m doing a lot of faces of people I know– and dolls–creepy dolls, and I’m morphing them with peeling paint, textures, and different images.”
Citron said, “I’d like to dedicate “Real Artist” to my grandpa because it’s a picture of him, and it made him so excited when I told him that I won an award for the picture that was originally his face. I’d love to continue to pursue art, definitely not as a career, but hopefully as a hobby because I like taking pictures of my family and for events. I’ll definitely keep photography in my life.”
Sophomore Margaret Fang on her piece, “Looking Into Another School Bus,” said, “Ms. Gilfedder was my main inspiration for this piece. She assigned this project as an opportunity for us to capture aspects of real life. I see school buses every day, and I think this piece reminds us of how the school bus is an important aspect of a typical high school student’s life.” Fang used a palate knife painting and scraping technique for this work. “I was so surprised when I found out that I won an award. Winning an award helped me realized that I have somewhat of an artistic talent and allowed me to not completely rule out pursuing a career in art,” she said.
On her piece “Caged,” junior Chase Filasky said, “When I started the piece, Ms. Gilfedder wanted us to go around the room and photograph objects. I decided to take the skeletons from the back of the room and photograph upwards from the spinal cord through the rib cage. I’m really excited and happy that I was chosen to be a Gold Key recipient out of the 300,000 people who entered in it in the United States. It’s pretty cool.”
Junior Sylvia Peng was inspired by everyday routines for her piece “IN A MINUTE MOM!” She said, “I tried to present something that we do all the time but seem to ignore or forget. I was particularly inspired by morning routines and the chaos that comes with them, so I chose to draw the action of putting on clothes. I think it perfectly captures the lack of coordination and urgency of a person who just woke up. My goal was to make the audience relate to the feeling of hopelessly trying to make yourself presentable on a hazy Monday morning in the short timespan before missing the bus. I am extremely honored to be able to be a Gold Key recipient. It was quite unexpected, actually. I don’t think I will be pursuing art in the future just because there are other things I feel more passionate about. However, I can definitely see art as part of my life in the future as a leisure activity. I also feel like the artistic skills I acquired would definitely be useful in whatever career I pursue in the future.”
Jericho High School art teacher Ms. Gilfedder urges her students to explore their unique artistic voices. She said, “I want my students to take risks. During my teaching career I have seen so many art portfolios that look the same. They consist of the same old projects taught year after year with the same old mediums. My personal goal for my students is to find their artistic voices that only they have. Students have approached me asking, ‘What should I create for my next project?’ I then have to say, ‘Well, what do you want to create? What is your favorite medium? What ideation are you thinking of? What haven’t you experimented with yet? More often than not, my students already have their creative ideas. They just need a little encouragement when it comes to believing in them.” Gilfedder urges her students to continue to pursue art and enter competitions in the future. She said, “I hope they continue to enter as many art contests as possible. Their work is amazing and it should be shared with the world. In regards to the current Scholastic Art and Writing recipients, it must be amazing to be able to say, ‘Hey, you know that award that the famous artist Andy Warhol won? Yeah, well, I won the same one! That’s right, I’m kind of a big deal.’”
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By ALANNA LEVINE Jericho High School students prevailed in the regional Northeast Scholastic Writing Awards, taking home two Gold Key awards, one Silver Key award, and many honorable mentions. Jericho High School’s Gold Key winners, junior Taylor […]
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