Wellness Center Art Contest
Sophia Staples-Meyers poses by her winning artwork design. Photo by Harper Pambrun
“Connection” was the theme of the 2019 Wellness Center Art Contest, and the winners will have had their artwork featured in a 2020 calendar that is now available for purchase at the ASB office window on campus for $15. All proceeds benefit the Wellness Center programs.
Contestants submitted their original, two-dimensional artwork that featured their interpretation of the theme “Connection” by October 1. “Connection” could be anything that the contestants felt related to how a relationship with a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else. Contestants were able to participate in many categories including poetry, photography, painting, and digital art.
The judges for the art contest were students, teachers, and staff on campus. Judging was held from Oct. 4 through 9 in the Wellness Center, and the contest winners were then announced on Oct. 11 in the daily announcements. The winners of the poetry and art categories were Gage Nuemann and Sophia Staples-Myers. Students who participated in the contest included Melissa Webb, Timothy Reid, Kalianna Lagomarsino, Sam Bartels, Autumn Youngs, Olivia Bryan, Chloe Davis, Alyssa Walters, Mazee Sawyer, Tammy Castro, Jillian Paredes, Sasha Oquendo, and Graciela Vance. Over 100 students and staff voted.
All artwork that was submitted into the contest was displayed in the Wellness Center for students and staff to enjoy. One contestant, freshman Graciela Vance, wrote a poem about her connection with her friend’s horse. Vance felt that the connection that she had with the horse was special, because, “When riding a horse you are connected to the horse.” Another poet, freshman Sasha Oquendo, wrote her poem about connection by, “...creating a poem where each letter in the word ‘connection’ represented what ‘connection’ meant to me,” Oquendo said. She added, “I really felt that the kind of poem I wanted to write was an acrostic style poem.” Acrostic style poems are poems that define a word by using each letter of the word. Sophomore Sophia Staples-Meyers, whose art depicted AHS’s mascot, the greyhound, was the first place winner of the art contest.
Other pieces of artwork submitted included a drawing of two hands holding a piece of red string shaped like a heart, as well as drawing with hands trying to touch the Earth with a butterfly hovering over the earth. Many other pieces of artwork depicted the Earth and people, and many seemed to be based on how people are connected to the planet.
Digital art submissions also included images of people of different ages, showing their connection with the environment, and other people and objects around them. Other students that participated in the poetry category of the art contest wrote poems based on their connection with their friends, family, pets, nature, and hobbies that they enjoy.
Everyone who participated in the contest was invited to a celebration at lunch on Oct. 11. All participants in the contest will also be given a calendar which features all of the artwork submitted to the contest, including their own.