Featured Student Artist: Rylee Noe

Rylee Noe has been drawing ever since she can remember. According to her parents, she would color in the lines of coloring books without being told to do so when she was little. Her art, The Egyptian was selected as a Top Ten Winner in our Fall 2014 national art contest for students in grades K-12.

Rylee has always been interested in drawing animals from a young age, especially cats. She explains, “The Egyptian was prompted by a school assignment that was to pick an animal and a time period. We had to reflect this time period in the artwork through the animal’s clothing/jewelry and the frame. So, I chose a cheetah because I am interested in their anatomy; I love that they appear delicate and graceful, but are also very powerful. I chose Ancient Egypt as the time period because I thought the detailed, gold jewelry would look nice with the tones of the cheetah’s fur.”

Rylee’s career path in the future is uncertain, but she knows it will include art because it is a part of who she is.

To learn more about our national art contests, visit www.celebratingart.com.

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Featured Student Artist: Jang Lee

Jang Lee is a senior currently attending Flower Mound High School in Texas. His piece, Concerto in Wonderland was selected as a Top Ten Winner in our Summer 2014 national art contest.

Jang is involved in the AP art program at his school and attends Dream Art Academy every Saturday. As president of his school’s National Art Honor Society and Art Club, art is a huge part of his life. He explains, “It’s given me an opportunity to express my creativity and pursue my passion. I believe it’s very important to nurture an inherent creative capacity that all people are born with. This idea was one of the inspirations for my piece.”

Jang goes on to explain the inspiration for his winning art. “Alice in Wonderland is my favorite childhood story because of its fantasy elements. However, I always felt like as I grew up, I slowly became estranged from the story. It became dull and unrealistically ridiculous. Concerto in Wonderland is inspired by the idea that as people mature, their innate creativity and capacity for imagination diminishes. I gave the piece a more twisted, dark interpretation to juxtapose it with the humorous story of Alice in Wonderland, showing how unfamiliar it has become to me. In terms of composition, I placed the large, twisted tree in the right of the piece to balance the rabbit. I also painted a river cutting through so the diagonal line would give it movement. The piece is purposefully over-saturated to satire the vivid mind we no longer have.”

In the future, Jang would like to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as an illustration major.

To learn more about our national student art contests, visit www.celebratingart.com.

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Featured Student Artist: Allison Zhang

Allison’s art “Friends” was selected as a Top Ten Winner in our Spring 2014 national student art contest. At the time, Allison was attending Chinook Middle School in Bellevue, Washington.

Allison has enjoyed art since she was little. She has been using acrylic for a couple of years and has recently started the media of oil painting. When creating “Friends”, she wanted to paint something new using the new techniques she’s learned from her art teacher.

Allison went on to explain, “…I painted two koi fishes swimming peacefully with ease down a gentle stream. I tried out thick strokes, thin strokes and other variety of the strokes I’ve learned through the past years. This piece has made me improve a lot in the media of oil painting.”

In the future, Allison hopes to have a career involving art and would like to learn all the different medias of art and master them, as she knows there are many things other than oil painting waiting to be learned and experienced.

To learn more about our national art contests, visit www.celebratingart.com.