41st annual Exhibiting Excellence art show brings together students from throughout region

In addition to skill and technique, it was vision and attention to subtlety that in many cases carried the day during the 41st annual Exhibiting Excellence high school art show at the Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus.

Juror Justin Miller, who also teaches painting at the River Campus, said in whittling down this year’s hundreds of submissions from schools as wide ranging as Puxico and Farmington, Missouri, he found himself drawn to pieces that spoke to the artists’ everyday experiences.

“It was a pretty daunting task,” he said. “But what I really looked for is a marriage of creativity, originality, content and technique... I want to see them take a chance. I think even high school students have a lot to say.”

And the pieces that most clearly made such statements, he said, tended to reflect the students’ surroundings.

“Draw from life, not necessarily from a computer screen or something that’s been printed out in 2-D,” he said. “That’s one of the things we teach here, 90 percent of the first classes are drawing from life.”

"Muddy," a sculpture by Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, student Josie Geisner, is seen Sunday among other works of art during the 41st annual Exhibiting Excellence high school art exhibit.TYLER GRAEF

The piece that took best in show, from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, student Megan Murphy, was a marker-and-colored-pencil drawing of a heap of dirty clothes titled “I need to do Laundry.”

Murphy said the piece was inspired by an actual heap of her clothes.

“I always really liked doing realistic drawings,” she said. “Last summer, I wanted to challenge myself, so I saw my clothes and saw that it had a lot of textures; I thought that would be a good challenge.”

The project, she said, took about 15 hours total, spread across several days.

“I chose colored pencils because it’s really easy to get fine detail,” she said. “I’m kind of a perfectionist that way. And it turned out this is probably one of the most realistic drawings I’ve ever done.”

Visitors look at pieces of art Sunday during the 41st annual Exhibiting Excellence high school art exhibit.TYLER GRAEF

Jim Phillips, who manages the Crisp Museum at the River Campus, said student artists’ inclusion in the annual exhibition can be a positive reinforcement and help keep the students engaged and productive.

“I’ve ended up purchasing high school pieces in past years for the home or office,” he said. “[This exhibition] can get kids thinking, ‘This (art) isn’t just a class I took one time; it’s something I could actually do in the future or at least as a hobby.’”

The exhibit, which features 150 selections from 30 schools and encompasses ceramics, painting, drawing, sculpture, fibers, photography, printmaking and mixed media will be on display through March 17.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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