April 11, 2016 at 1:18 p.m.
Helen Mears Art Contest winners announced
Helen Mears Art Contest winners announced
By Kayla Thomason-
There were 30 art pieces submitted for this year's contest, a bit more than last year, according to Cindy Goll, co-chair of the contest and secretary of the Rhinelander Woman's Club.
The wonderful creations ranged from zentangle to 3-D art and were created with a variety of mediums.
Some pieces included a flamingo with popping pink colors; a blue jay in vibrant blue; zentangles with contrasting colors and flowing designs; and a stunning black Arabian horse drawn with white pencil on black paper, its halter red and gold.
The winners were chosen based on creativity, originality, crafsmenship, use of material, how they incorporated design, neatness, matted and the judges' emotional response to the piece.
"The judges had everything out on tables and went through and paired them up," Goll said. "It took them quite awhile to decide the awards."
Parents, art teachers and students packed the room until there was only a fraction of the space open for the young artists to snake through the crowd to receive their awards.
"I'm just totally amazed at the number of parents that have attended, which certainly speaks well of how much they support art and how much they love and support their own children too," Goll said.
Rachel Runge, an eighth-grader who is homeschooled, placed first and best in show with her piece "Arabian Nights."
"I love horses, they're really cool," she said of her choice of topic.
Her medium was pencil. "Pencil is my favorite, I really don't do much painting or anything else," she said, noting that his was her first time participating in the contest.
Joseph Heck, a seventh-grader at Nativity, took third place with his zentangle piece.
"I thought it was cool to see a lot of the other artwork and how creative some of the ideas other people had," he said.
He chose to do zentangle because he learned about it in art class and he thought it was cool. This was Heck's first time participating in the contest and he hopes to enter again next year.
Lauren Kefalinos, an eighth-grader at Nativity, took first place with her zentangle piece titled "Beauty."
"I was sitting in my room and I just drew something," she said.
Last fall, ArtStart set aside two weeks for the students' exhibit, which the public can see until April 15.
"We feel like (ArtStart has) got a wonderful commitment to us," Goll said. "We're really appreciative of that."
The contest not only allows the students to express themselves, but shows how many appreciate the arts.
"We hope this encourages support for the arts programs in the school," said Adrienne Birkholz, co-chair of the event. "They are the one really creative piece of the childrens' education that you find in school. It's their idea brought to life."
Rhinelander students have been participating in the contest for 20 years. It has been held statewide since 1927.
Mears was an artist from the Oshkosh area and in 1927, a number of years after she passed away, the Woman's Club decided to honor her by naming the contest in her honor.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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