Student Artists Recognized, Draw on Personal Experience

The Regional Scholastic Art Awards recognized six Exonian artists for exquisite and diverse submissions ranging from photographs of mountain bluffs in Cape Town, South Africa to colored pencil pieces centered around felines.

The results were announced on Jan. 9, 2018. According to the website, the Regional Scholastic Art Awards are “the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7-12.” Out of 330,000 submissions, 90,000 pieces of art won awards, including the “gold key,” “silver key” and “honorable mention.”

Many Exonians began submitting their work before high school. Prep Christina Xiao has entered her work since the seventh grade, and senior Jasmine Lee had once entered a piece of writing before attending Exeter.

Senior Ivy Tran, who was awarded one honorable mention, four gold keys and two silver keys, first submitted poetry to the awards while in middle school. “I began entering my art when I thought about pursuing it as a career because I wanted to know what other people thought of my art,” she said. “They also offer scholarships and programs to winners, so that would help me pursue art further.”

Students submitted a variety of works, ranging from poetry to photography. “I submitted around ten pieces, and most of them were fashion pieces with a few drawings and paintings,” Tran said. Xiao, who won four gold keys, one silver key and two honorable mentions, submitted drawings. “Three of the pieces were colored pencil, and one was smaller,” she said. “My general theme every time I do art is cats.”

"I don’t really feel like I’m losing anything when I send things in. I have art—why not send it and see what other people think?”

Senior Jasmine Lee submitted photographs that captured the cultural diversity of Singapore. “I don’t use any Photoshop, and my style is really about using outdoor lighting and manipulating the contrast,” she said.

Upper Raj Das, who won a silver key and two honorable mentions, also entered his photography. “Over the summer, I had the privilege and blessing of visiting some relatives in South Africa, which was incredible. A lot of the submissions were centered around the wildlife that I noticed and the differences in culture,” he said. “We saw a rhinoceros lying down on the street as we were driving by, so I just snapped a photo of that.”

Exonians submitted art that holds great personal meaning and value, providing the viewer with a glimpse into each artists’ life. Tran’s art depicts Chinese culture. “Some of the pieces that I submitted are part of a collection that I made lower year in an Art 444 course to celebrate my Chinese heritage,” Tran said. “They use Chinese ideals in western fashion to accurately represent and portray Chinese culture, which is rarely done [in] current media.”

Lee’s art focused on portraiture and discovering Singapore’s unique populace. “My style is more documentary so I really enjoy taking pictures of people, and I remember specifically going to Singapore because my dad is Singaporean,” she said. “By going there, I kind of discovered the multiculturalism of the country, and I really wanted to capture that.”

The submissions also centered around the artists’ personal experiences. “Other paintings and drawings explore my childhood neighborhood in Las Vegas and what it is like to be a child of immigrants in America,” Tran said. “I also submitted fashion pieces that were dedicated to a friend back home who suffers from childhood depression, and their purpose was to create discussion around such issues and to help erase the stigma around depression.”

For some students, the awards enable them to pursue their passion through their artwork. Lee most values the competition because of “the fact that you have the personal satisfaction of getting your work recognized.”

The awards also help students recognize their skill and motivate them to continue to create art. Das had only begun to experiment with photography before the awards. His sister told him about the awards and convinced him to submit the photos of his trip to Africa. “So I was just looking at the photos I had taken before the trip but also during the trip, and she recommended that I submit around twenty photos,” he said. Das never foresaw that he would win an award for simply taking a photo on his phone of the bluffs in Cape Town; however, this confidence boost has propelled him into continuing with his work.

Xiao personally felt that the competition served as a platform to share her work. “Although there’s a submission fee for each piece, honestly I don’t really feel like I’m losing anything when I send things in. I have art—why not send it and see what other people think?”