Caroline Surratt
T.C. art students have been successful in art competitions over the past month, including the All City High School Art Exhibition and the Statewide Reflections Art Contest.
The All City High School Art Exhibition has been held annually for the past four years by the Convergence Arts Initiative. Students from over 90 private, public or independent high schools around the city competed in the competition. Students enter by having their artwork selected by an outside jury and then submitted to the competition. Prizes were awarded in Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, Photography, Mixed Media, Digital Design, Ceramics, Sculpture, Fibers, and Film.
Junior Lilly Tucker won best in ceramics with her piece titled, Precarious. It was called Precarious because,“It fell apart a bunch” said Tucker. The piece is a representation of a flawed woman’s body to represent that not all women are perfect. As a contrast to the realism of the body, Tucker added a spherical head. “I like how I made the body, like an average women, she’s not a mannequin.”
Tucker is a first timer at All City High School Art Exhibition. She is already looking forward to next year’s competition, “If I got Best in Ceramics my first year, I’ll see what I get next year!”
Senior Hannah Plishker won Best in Show with her piece titled, Phobias. Plishker said her piece is based on the idea of the fear of failure.She displayed this idea with a smooth body but mangled legs on the creature.
This is Plishker’s third year participating in the All City High School Art Exhibition. Last year, she won best in show for her 3D piece. Plishker does not confine herself to one form of art. Her winning piece this year was ceramics, but she says that her favorite medium is painting. Plishker has taken an art class every year she has been at T.C. and she plans to pursue her passion for art in college.
T.C. Art teacher Beth Coast is very impressed with the success of Tucker and Plishker. “They both went above and beyond,” said Coast.
Coast said that their pieces stood out because they were “very creative, their craftsmanship was top notch and not cliche.”
The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Reflections contest had over 300,000 art entries where students from K-12 had the opportunity to compete nationwide in the categories of Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography and Visual arts.
Two T.C. students won first place from two different categories in the T.C. contest, as well as the Alexandria City Contest and Northern Virginia District Contest.
T.C. also had many honorable mentions for the reflections contest including Yelena York in pastel drawing for Psychological Space, Edwin Galvez Giron in painting for Feeling Orange, Dean Schiller in Photography for Hidden Forest and Madeline Ulmer in Ceramics for Untitled.
Senior Claudia Pareja won a statewide Award of Merit in third place for her photo titled Unconditional Love, which is a photograph of her mother. This was the first time Pareja entered the Reflections contest.
“My mom is my best friend and I know that she would do anything for me and I’d do anything for her,” said Pareja.
Junior Jonathan Morgan Petrini won a statewide award for Outstanding Interpretation of Theme for music composition for his piece Kaleidoscope for string quartet.
“When I was writing, I just had that image pulsing in my head,” said Petrini.
Petrini has been involved in music and started playing the piano when he was in second grade. “I’ve always had a passion for music,” Petrini said.
He composed his piece at the Boston Conservatory this past summer. Petrini has been participating in the reflections contest since the first grade. He was able to go to Nationals when he was in eighth grade and is moving onto Nationals this year as well.
Alexandria continues to encourage artistic expression in its youth with competitions like PTA Reflections and All City Art.
