Now through Feb. 28, artwork from students across Delaware is being displayed at the Arts Castle’s Delaware County High School Art Show. Works from Hayes are displayed as well as pieces from Buckeye Valley and Olentangy High Schools.
Hayes had multiple winners throughout the show. Winners include junior Liam Monahan, who placed first with a photograph titled “Left Behind,” and junior Brooklyn Robinson, who placed first with a digital art piece titled “Gremlins in the Wall.” Junior Jaylin Walker placed third with a ceramic piece titled “Frog’s Bath,” and senior Lillian Trowbridge received Juror’s Choice for a drawing titled “Krysten.
Ceramics teacher Cynthia Vaught and the other art teachers picked some of their favorite projects from the fall semester to be displayed at the Arts Castle.
“We all pick A+ work. I chose the bird baths this year because I’ve never seen a bird bath at that show, and I thought that’d be really cool,” Vaught said. “I just try to pick unique pieces. One year, I picked a box that was a two inch cube and it won first place. It’s the quality and the uniqueness of the pieces.”
These students, along with many others who were featured in the show, have spent many hours gathering inspiration and bringing their ideas to life. Each artist took their general assignments and made them their own to secure a spot in the show.
“Mrs. Vaught [said], ‘You have to make a bird bath,’” Walker said. “I spent so long thinking [about] what to make. I threw this one piece at a time and once it all came together, I saw the shape was like a mushroom. I was like, ‘Okay,’ I was making it for my mom and my mom likes mushrooms, so I just made it a mushroom.”
Walker’s piece, along with the other bird baths that were in the show, was thrown on the wheel in parts that were eventually stacked on top of each other to achieve the heights of a few feet.
Trowbridge, a Drawing 1 student, took her inspiration and followed it as best she could to create a unique high-contrast piece.
“I gridded the [inspiration] picture, and then the actual paper, then I just followed the guidelines and drew it out first, and then I outlined everything,” Trowbridge said. “Then I started stippling, then for the really dramatic pieces, like her hair, I just did black ink all over that and just kind of continued to darken it until it looked like the picture.”
Through different artistic mediums, these students were able to create pieces that caught the eye of unbiased judges. Through weeks of class time, these works came together piece by piece, dot by dot, picture by picture.
“I liked doing the little dots,” Trowbridge said. “It was very tedious, but I liked having it all come together because I took progress pictures and looking at [them] from the beginning to the very end was really fun to do. And I think my favorite part was the eye, doing the reflection in her eye, it was really neat. And doing like the shadow of her crease. I really like that part.”
Vaught’s favorite part as a teacher is seeing projects come together, art show and non-art show pieces alike.
“I like seeing [students] on the wheel growing so much,” Vaught said. “I can just say, ‘Go do this,’ and it’s easy for [them]. The growth is what is exciting; even with a first time person on a potter’s wheel or a hand builder, success is exciting to me when I see that.”
It’s a recurring theme that art is what inspires students to come to school every day. Art classes give students something to look forward to and a creative outlet in the middle of traditional education classes.
“Honestly, ceramics is what I look forward to every day,” Walker said. “I get to go to it right before lunch and then right after lunch. Everyone’s always like, ‘Oh my God, your clothes are so dirty,’ but I don’t really care about my clothes being dirty. I just like having the class and I’m glad I get the opportunity.”
