Art attack
Photos by Ken Grabowski/News
Advocate
Best in Show Manistee High School student
Jonathan Bailey proudly stands next to his
drawing tribute to the late MAPS teacher Lee
Gramza that earned him the Best in Show award.
West Shore Community College
Regional High School Art Show
highlights future of art; reception Sunday
Posted by Ken Grabowski, Manistee
News Advocate
SCOTTVILLE — Manistee High School art
student Jonathan Bailey never had a doubt.
When it came to selecting a drawing
to enter in the West Shore Community College
Regional High School Art Show, Bailey knew exactly
what he wanted to submit.
The talented art student created a drawing that will
most likely evoke emotion from anyone familiar with
Manistee High School.
Bailey’s art teacher Monte Klein
agreed that the drawing he did in memory of his late
teacher Lee Gramza was the perfect choice. As fate
would have it, the show’s juror felt the same way,
and it earned Bailey the “Best in Show” award for
the 2013 event.
West Shore Community College
professor of art Rebecca Mott said the 2013 show
ranks up there as one of the best in the 15-year
history of it.
“I think it is a good show and the
drawing is very strong, which hasn’t always been the
case,” said Mott. “I think it was very difficult for
the juror to decide among all the good drawings.
There is a lot of color in this year’s show and
things that stand out.”
Mott said the entries are always
distinctive and unique and this year was not any
exception to that rule.
“There are always a few pieces that
are really surprising and things I haven’t seen
before,” said Mott. “They can be really interesting
and we always look forward to this show because the
students love to see it. We have a lot of students
from high school taking classes out
here and they are already looking at it and trying
to see the artwork. It is a show that we really like
to host.”
On Sunday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. there
will be a reception at the Manierre Dawson Art
Gallery, which is located in the arts and sciences
building at WSCC. The show will run at the college
until March 23. Gallery hours will be from 9 a.m. to
4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. until
1 p.m on Fridays.
 “We
have a reception that is open to the public so
people can meet the artists and a lot of the
teachers come as well,” said Mott. “I hope everyone
comes out to support the
students because it is a big achievement for them
and it takes courage to enter their artwork in a
show for the first time, so they need the support.”
Sixty-six students from nine schools
in the college district will show 77 works of art in
10 categories. Ribbons will be awarded to first and
second place in the categories of jewelry,
sculpture, pottery, drawing, painting, printmaking,
photography, video, textiles and mixed media.
Students participating in the event are from
Brethren, Hart, Ludington, Pentwater, Mason County
Central, Manistee Catholic Central, Manistee High,
Onekama and Shelby high schools. |
“For our area, it is one of the best
shows around,” said WSCC professor of art Rebecca
Mott. “Some schools have their own, but others in it
don’t, so this gives them a chance to be in a show.
This year is actually a little smaller in the number
of entries and unfortunately that might be because
of budget cuts in the schools.”
Mott said the arts are important at
the high school level and are an academic outlet
like other subjects. “It helps with creative
thinking,” said Mott. “When you think about what
employers are looking for, they want people to have
creative ability.
“That creativity is something you
don’t get in a lot of other classes. Art, music and
theater are some of the few areas where you can
really be creative.”
The entries they received for the
show include a lot of quality pieces of work. She
said the focus has changed over the years from a
stronger emphasis on painting and sculpture to more
digital photography and drawing.
“We have more digital photography and
manipulated photographs,” said Mott. “Usually, that
has been a real small category where we might have
three or four entries, but we have a whole bunch of
them this year. I think that is going to be a
difficult area to judge this year. Drawing has a lot
of entries and mixed media does as well. But there
doesn’t seem to be a lot of straight painting and
not that much sculpture like in the past.”
 Students
were given the opportunity take two-dimensional work
to the A.M. Gallery in Ludington to get matted with
the cost covered by the WSCC Foundation.
“That gives it a professional look,”
said Mott. “They then get to keep them after the
show.”All the schools in Manistee County except for
Bear Lake will have students showing their works.
Manistee High School art teacher
Monte Klein has submitted the works of Jonathan
Bailey, Victoria Frechette, Kyle Husk, Savannah Kolk,
Kristen Loeffler, Petra Probst, Brianna Wallace,
Rebecca Barry, Daniela Parazzi and Amber Breusch.
Onekama High School and teacher Dana
Woolman will have the works of Kelly Koon, Emily
Barnard, Lena Beir, Diego Ponce, Claire Harvey and
Alex Barto on display.
Manistee Catholic Central teacher
Mary Wahr will the works of Jared Hanson, Blake
Vargas, Maria Sidor, Haley Doyle, Hannah Janicki,
Robert Russo, Aaron Shively and Alyssa Campbell.
Brethren teacher Amanda Mobley will
show the works of Ailie Summers, Kaelee Jacobs,
Siarra Lopez, Chole Dudek, Josie Judnic, Olivia Arlt,
Haley Wade, Rylee Fleming, Dakota McLeod and Chelsea
Stewart.
Brenda Sipe will be serving as the
juror of this event. She is a Grand Rapids artist
and the director of the youth and adults continuing
studies program for Kendall College.
“She just had a show here at the
college,” said Mott. “I thought it is nice to have a
juror from out of the area who doesn’t have any ties
to the community or the schools. With her being at
the college, it made it easy to jury this show.” |
