Central senior wins best in show at 32nd annual High School Art Exhibition

Nearly a month ago, art teacher Robert Friedrich asked his students at Cape Girardeau Central High School to create a piece of pop art based on the idea of metamorphosis.

Senior Tess Colon's ceramic sculpture of a digital camera with a squid's tentacles coming out of the lens not only landed her an A, it also won her the honor of best in show Sunday at the 32nd annual High School Art Exhibition.

Colon's sculpture was one of 102 submissions to the exhibition this year held at the Crisp Museum on the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus.

"It's a great show, year after year," said Chris Wubbena, Southeast art professor and exhibition coordinator. "We've tweaked it here and there, but the show, I think, stays really strong."

Students from 17 regional school districts submitted their favorite pieces of art, which includes drawings, paintings, photographs, ceramics and fibers.

Colon, who also received a $1,500 scholarship to study art at Southeast, said she wanted to incorporate a digital camera into her piece as a message to her mother.

"I've been trying to get her to buy me one," Colon said, giggling. "I thought putting it in here might help."

Including a squid in the piece, she added, was simply because she found the creature interesting.

"I just like to create things," she said.

Libby Miles, a senior from Scott City, won third place for a small abstract painting of her boyfriend. The work was originally a landscape, but when she didn't like what she was producing, Miles started over.

"Three-fourths of the time I don't like what I do," she said. "I just started going again, and it turned out to be a face."

She covered the canvas first, she added, with orange paint and incorporated a bright green and navy blue to develop the shape of her boyfriend's face.

Senior Elizabeth Twaddell, of Dexter, Mo., created her third-place drawing of a dandelion while she was on vacation watching the sun set. She wanted to mimic the colors of the sunset in a drawing of a flower but chose the nontraditional route and painted a weed instead.

The dandelion drawing, sketched on black paper with colored pencils, was one of Twaddell's four submissions. She also won second- and third-place awards in the photography category.

Crisp Museum director Peter Nguyen said the art show, titled "Exhibiting Excellence," is a great way for the museum to involve the community and boost students' confidence.

The submissions were juried by Karen Cummings, assistant professor of art education at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, who called the works innovative. The subject matter of the submissions reflected the excitement, creativity and skill of students in area high school art classrooms, Cummings said in a juror's statement.

"You can attribute that to the high school teachers. They're pushing their kids to do some really good work," Nguyen said.

Cummings' criteria for selecting the award-winning pieces included judging a student's willingness to take a risk in the idea, craftsmanship, originality and the complexity of the work's message.

"We are so proud to have so many amazing talented young people in our region," said Pat Reagan, chairwoman of the Department of Art.

Colon's ceramic sculpture and the rest of the submissions can be viewed at the Crisp Museum until March 7.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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