Hundreds, even thousands, of pieces of art hang on many gallery walls at the yearly Visual Arts Scholastic Events (VASE) events. At VASE, student artwork is evaluated by four categories: understanding of art concepts, technical skill, creativity, and personal voice.
On the weekend of April 26 and 27, sophomore David Morales-Simon, freshman Hollyn Gerrald and junior Elizabeth Sharp received the IV Superior Rating Medalist during their state VASE in San Marcos, Texas.
“[Winning an IV superior rating award] was good because it means you were considered for a gold seal,” Gerrald said. “It made me feel happy to know that I stand with some of the best artists in our state.”
Shea Phillips, an art teacher at Texas High, leads the students participating in these competitions.
“Early on, me and all our teachers helped the kids plan their pieces to make sure they would fit within the rules, showing them examples of pieces,” Phillips said. “So they [could] see what the quality of state pieces are and how they can make their art excel out of the regional level to get to the state level.”
Simon entered multiple pieces in the competition, winning him two IV superior ratings.
“I thought I was just gonna get thrown to the side, but when I found out that I won a medal for both of my pieces,” Morales said. “I was really excited, it made me happy, [and even] made me overtly confident.”
Art communicates in ways we cannot regularly, embracing and sharing our cultural differences. Morales’s art pieces reflect his passion for connection.
“I picked [my art] based on what I thought was personally important to me at the moment,” Morales said. “I think that we should all get along, every color, every culture, and we should just embrace everybody that we can embrace.”
Through art, a relationship and understanding of our personal challenges can be expressed in a clear, healthy way.
“I was struggling with my ADHD, and I just decided that it would be better if I just expressed it on paper,” Gerrald said. “[My] piece was over my growth and mental health, so I tried to convey that in the best way I could.”
For artists, the art concepts allow them to create meaningful and connective work.
“[The art concepts] just help us create, make individual art pieces, and guide us,” Morales said. “I didn’t think I was using any [concepts], I was just doing whatever I thought looked good, but people started telling me that I had a lot of different art principles in my piece.”
Bringing home four IV superior rating medals encouraged and inspired students to work harder to achieve even beyond their goals.
“It was a little bit of a bittersweet moment, because we did have some pieces that we went that did not get that medallion, and others that did,” Phillips said. “But the ones that didn’t receive one are ready to go back next year and try to get one.”
