Featured Teacher: Cherie Jenkins

Cherie Jenkins teaches art to students in grades K-12 for two home school Co-ops in Dallas, TX.  Her student, Aiden Moller, was selected as a Top Ten Winner in our Spring 2013 art contest.  The winning art, “Whimsical Bird”, can be viewed here.  Cherie has had over 100 students become published artists since she first participated in our national art contest in 2013.

We asked Cherie her thoughts on engaging student artists and what helps her to be successful in the classroom. She responded with the following:

“I find that while engaging art students in the classroom, it is best to keep in mind the need to break down the lesson into several parts. My students flourish with step-by-step instructions from drawing with lines and shapes that are familiar, to painting using color families on the color wheel, as well as a good foundation in art elements and principles of design. I especially enjoy working with my students as they explore the different art mediums and art techniques I’ve introduced to them. During each lesson, I strive to inspire my students to work towards ‘Completion’, rather than perfection. Many students get caught up in trying to produce ‘Perfect’ art, discouragement then sets in and the art piece is left unfinished. While students are focusing on completion, it’s their ‘Creative’ mind that influences their art piece, instead of their ‘Critical’ mind. As an art teacher, I see my calling as one who not only instructs but inspires, and inspiration is just as important as instruction for the creative process.”

To learn more about our national art contest, visit www.CelebratingArt.com.

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Featured Student Artist: Sangeun Lee

Sangeun Lee is an upcoming sophomore at Eastside High School in Florida.  Sangeun’s hobbies include digital and fine art and playing the piano.  “Them and I” was selected as a Top Ten Winner for the Spring 2013 national art contest.

“Them and I” was partly inspired from the shirt Sangeun was wearing when the reference photo for the piece was taken (shown above); there was a cat on Sangeun’s t-shirt, which prompted the additional cats in the background of the painting.

For the future, Sangeun plans to pursue an art-related career, but also has an interest in Computer Science.

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

Featured Student Artist: Christine Cho

Christine Cho is a sophmore at Hebron High School in Texas.  Her painting, “Big Flirt”, was selected last spring as a Top Ten Winner for her age division.  When Christine isn’t painting, she enjoys playing tennis, spending time with friends and family, and reading.

Christine explains, “Although I have not been painting for very long, I know that I will continue to paint for as long as I can, because I Iove being able to see all my hard work come together when the painting is finished. Currently, my favorite medium is acrylic, but I have just recently started painting with oil paints, and I am beginning to like that very much as well.  My favorite things to paint are the small details, like feathers, stitches, bubbles, etc. because even though they might seem minuscule, and might not be seen at first glance, I feel they really add extra dimension and character to a painting.

For this particular painting, “Big Flirt”, my inspiration was to draw a beautiful duck that stood out from the others, because I originally planned to enter the Junior Duck Contest, but I felt constrained by the 9″ by 12″ size I was required to meet. So after a lot of time and research, I decided to focus on my duck rather then the contest I would be entering. After finding a duck that I really liked, I began to sketch it out on the canvas in detail, then continued on to paint, and enhance the colors of the duck a little bit to ensure that it would be eye-catching, regardless of the contest I planned to enter.”

Christine’s future plans include continuing to paint, earning a degree in the arts, and then continuing on to hopefully pursue a career in the arts as well.

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

Featured Student Artist: Keely O’Connor

Keely O’Connor is a 12-year-old student from Deferiet, NY, a very small town located approximately 45 minutes from the Canadian border. In her 12 short years she has become quite an accomplished young artist. From the time she was old enough to pick up a crayon, she has been drawing.

Keely was selected as a Top Ten Winner for the Spring 2012 art contest for her piece, “Skull & Corn“.  This means that her art was one of the ten best in the United States and Canada for her age division.

Keely entered her first art show in 2009 at the Jefferson County Fair and took home the 1st place blue ribbon. In 2010, she once again entered this yearly contest, only this time she entered two of her paintings, and took home 1st and 2nd place. Keely accomplished her goal of winning Best of Show for a painting in 2011. At just 11 years old, Keely won against all other entries in the Youth Division, which is open to all artists up to 18 years of age.

In the fall of 2011 Keely received permission to enter one of her drawings in the 63rd Annual North Country Art Councils Fine Art Show. This exhibit included 248 pieces of work from 77 artists. Keely was awarded 1st place for her drawing, and was the only child in the competition. Keely was approached early in 2012 by a local physician who wanted to commission a portrait from her. This was her first commission, since then she has been commissioned for another. In April 2012, one of Keely’s pieces was chosen as the People’s Choice winner for Artist’s World Magazine, and she was featured on the cover.  Keely took 1st place in the 2012 Jefferson County Fair for the same drawing she entered into our contest.  She also took 2nd place for her sculpture.

Keely enjoys painting, sculpting and drawing. Nature scenes and animals are her loves right now. Keely takes private art classes with Bob Renaud, the local high school art instructor and a renowned artist in his own right. Keely looks forward to attending art school in the future, and to becoming a professional artist.

Congratulations, Keely, on all of your many accomplishments!  Keep up the incredible work and we hope to see more of your talent in the future!

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

Featured Student Artist: Becca Parrish

Becca Parrish is a 15-year-old student at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.  Her art, “Laughter is the Greatest Medicine“, was chosen as a Top Ten Winner for the spring 2012 art contest.  This means that Becca’s art was selected as one of the ten best pieces of art in the entire United States and Canada for her age division.

Becca’s hobbies include volleyball and basketball.  She likes to go to the beach and participate in the youth group at her church.  She became interested in art when she was in the second grade.

“I saw this photo of my cousin, Chaya, and fell in love with her expression. I wanted to catch the light and laughter in her eyes.” Becca explains, describing what inspired her to create her winning piece.  Becca’s future goals include going to an art school where she can develop her skills in the arts.

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

Your Students Are Great

I recently visited Washington DC and I took my family to the Smithsonian’s Art Galleries.  I love art and I enjoy looking at art.  When we left the Museum of Modern Art, my family also left more impressed with the art that is sent into our contests.  From the tens of thousands of students who participate in our art contest, we have all kinds of art sent in.  From modern abstract pieces to beautiful portraits.  It is our job to trim the entries down to what we feel are the top 25%.  It is not an easy task.  However, having seen a large painting in the Modern Art Gallery where I wasn’t sure if a 20 foot by 20 foot plain orange canvas with a black line slashed across the middle had been vandalized or if it was put there on purpose, or looking at a canvas with what looked like a representation of a dry erase board that had math formulas partly erased, I also realized that once you are established as an artist you have credibility and anything goes.

I know if we had accepted similar art and published it in our books, I would have received letters from teachers and students asking me to justify printing bad art when other students had entered better pieces that were not accepted.  I know art is subjective.  Modern art is supposed to push things to the edge, but seeing much of what is displayed, it makes me appreciate every piece that is sent to us.  Don’t get me wrong, I love modern art, but I also like to see art where I can feel the talent and struggle behind the art. Our books are a presentation of what our judges feel is good art.  Not everyone will agree with our decisions.  But we hope people will see the merit in what we chose for the publication.

For more information about our national art contests, please visit www.CelebratingArt.com.

What Is Originality?

In starting the art contest in 2010, we have learned a lot about issues that we did not think would arise.  Each student is asked to send in an original work of art. But what does that exactly mean?  We have many teachers who have their students enter collages with images that come from other sources.  In these cases, the compilation of the images into an original form is the student’s creation.  However, as the original images are not the students,  we cannot have a contest winner or include in the book, an image that is copyrighted elsewhere.

We have also encountered students who will take a work such as “Starry Night” by Van Gogh and put their own interpretation onto the image.  If the image is now in public domain, then this is allowed if the student gives the original artist credit.  However, when an image is an exact copy then this is a greater challenge.  When a student sees a painting and then tries to make an exact copy, the work of putting the paint to the canvas is done by the student, but the work or imagination in creating the work is not.

We cannot be aware of every image.  Our official policy is that we love to see the work conceptualized by the student.  A work in the public domain can act as a starting point, but we hope the student will take it from there and add their own style to the piece.

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

Make Your Student Feel Like an Artist

What makes a student feel like he or she is an artist? Often teachers assign an art project, it gets completed and it is sent home.  However, with one more step, students feel their work is valued and shared with the school and community.

Judy Johnson and Jana Miller at Arendell Parrott Academy in Kinston, North Carolina have learned the value of a student art show.  Judy states “I have been doing this for 24 years and the excitement never pales.”  Each year they host a show that shows off their students’ work.

Judy explains how the art is selected.  “Each year I save all the work that has gone up in the halls and the students bring in their pile (after a very confusing delivery system) to class and they SHOULD have their two strongest pieces on top.  I work with each one to determine if their decision is a sound one.  Sometimes we negotiate  and sometimes the class may get involved with a critique…even 1st grade.”  The art is then judged by an independent artist from the community.    The students feel like they have their own gallery and that their work is valued.  From the number of walls covered with art in the pictures, you can see Arendell Parrott Academy has a vibrant program.

In having judged thousands of students’ work I can testify that they are one of the top programs in the country that participate in our contest.  Their student work is a joy to judge.

Tom Worthen. Ph.D.
Editor

Make Being Published an Event!

As the art judging is finished I always feel a bit guilty when I come across a school with an extremely high acceptance rate.  But sometimes a teacher is just great and his or her students create wonderful work.

There are a few schools that I look forward to judging. Palmer Catholic Academy in Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida is one of those schools who I find it a joy to see the students’ art.  Katie Corrigan has created a program there where her students create wonderful images.  Her elementary school watercolors are above grade level and just plain fun.

She sent an email this week with the following pictures and message:

I can’t tell you how happy I am to see how many of our students “made the cut”! I’ve opted to wait for the postcards before sharing the news so they have something in hand to take home but it is a hard secret to keep. I couldn’t remember if I sent the attached photos to you upon receipt of last year’s good news and book arrival so I am attaching them now. I thought you might like to see some of the proud second grade artists with the book opened to their paintings. As the cards arrived shortly before the last day of school I had given letters to the students and used the cards to decorate our lobby bulletin board. The students took them home on the last day but had a chance to shine being recognized there first.
 
Thank you again for your wonderful book! We are thrilled to be a part of it.
 
With gratitude,
Katie Corrigan
Art Teacher
Palmer Catholic Academy

Thank you Katie.  In judging high schools that do work at a level much lower than your 4th graders, you are making a difference and changing lives.  We are glad to be here as a way to give your art an audience.  Hopefully being published provides an extra spark as we work together to create live long artists.
 
 Tom Worthen, Ph.D.

Raise the Bar

The deadlines have now passed for entry into our spring contests.  It is always a joy to come across a teacher who really knows how to teach and you have 30 entries that are each a joy to judge.  It always comes down to the teacher.  We have some teachers who send in 50 entries and none are accepted.  In other cases, a teacher who really works with his or her students sends in 50 entries and all 50 are accepted.

There are several teachers who I wish were teaching my children.  I really don’t think these exceptional pieces of art or poetry came from schools with above average students.  Many of them come from normal neighborhood public schools.  I think a teacher took ordinary students and taught them techniques that ended in extraordinary results.

I hope as teachers see our books and realize what each grade is capable of creating, the bar can be raised. I hope next year, one teacher will look at our contest with the attitude of “Wow! I didn’t know kids could do this quality of work,” and then that teacher will take it as a challenge next year.  My hope is that for his or her class the expectations that the students and the teacher have will be raised and another class will produce extraordinary work.

For more information about our national writing contests, please visit www.PoeticPower.com.

For more information about our national art contest, please visit www.CelebratingArt.com.