Students awarded at national level for art projects
Adam Jones (11)
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards provided many students the opportunity to show their creative side and be recognized as artists and thoughtful creators.
The art contest rewards students with “keys,” and 11 artists and one writer have received the highest honor of gold key, recognizing them as students with creative promise. These students had their pieces moved up to the national level, where they were contenders for national gold keys and could have been be chosen as American Voices or Visions Nominees.
“I required my students to apply because … the reward of possibly winning and gaining the experience of what it’s like to compete is imperative to blooming pupils,” AP art teacher Stacy Rosende said.
Students can submit to dozens of categories, including short stories, comic art, animation, painting and poetry. Winners of the highest awards were offered an all-expense-paid trip to New York for an award ceremony and to meet other writers and artists.
“I tend to focus my feelings and energy into art most of the time,” junior and gold key winner Adam Jones said. “I tend to start it and it finishes; it comes naturally. I think that [the artwork] gives an emotional reaction. People say it’s unnerving, and I’m glad I had this opportunity.”
The Art and Writing contest lets students hone in on their creativity and show their talents to others around the nation.
“I turned in a capstone essay, and it was a pretty bomb paper…. and the research was significant,” sophomore and silver key winner Aiden Kussel said. “It was about the effects of pressure on teens, like cyber bullying and technology affecting kids. It’s not just about making something; you can refine and show your skills as well.”
At an award ceremony that was held March 27, students at University of Tampa’s Polk Theater accepted gratification for their art pieces.
“I wrote a bundle of poems that expresses greed and what it means to succeed with wealth and fighting with hard work,” junior and gold key winner Dean Criser said. “I was trying to sum up life and all its ups, downs, dreams and defeats and how we all deal with regret and realization is this crazy, confusing world of ours.”
American Visons Nominees Lily Antilla and Adam Jones received a $100 gift card from Suncoast Credit Unit for their hard work. Students Jessie Yang and Arianna Garcia, who submitted art portfolios, received the same $100 prize.
“I wanted to focus and show expression on physical objects and how they connect to an emotional level,” senior and gold key winner Lily Antilla said. “I ask myself, ‘Why am I using the materials I have to portray the ideas?’ I started painting on bedsheets, cardboard and things around me and used strange colors to show emotions that bubble on the inside, not emotions displayed on the outside.”
At the regional show, judges picked Antilla’s art piece for an on the spot $20,000 scholarship for having one of the best creative pieces in the show.
“I won the gold regional, and I ended up winning a gold national award as well,” senior and national gold key winner Elena Grant said. “It was my first serious oil painting. I am very grateful and surprised to be honored, and I want my career and art to make a name for myself, and I hope to impress a lot of prominent people in the art community.”
This coming June, after the final round at the national level, Elena Grant will be awarded a trip to participate in an art show in New York. Here, some of the highest scoring student artists in the world will be recognized for their skill and possibly be given head starts into artistic careers with funding and opportunities.