Three Students To Compete In State Visual Arts Scholastic Event April 25
After over four months of planning, sketching and painting every last detail, senior Eliana Tenorio took her piece titled “Bittersweet” to the regional VASE competition where she scored a two.
“I thought, this is not fair at all,” Brown said. “So maybe, like, an hour went by, and I thought about it more, and I reached out to the regional director and told them that [her piece] was not a two rating.”
After several complaints from several teachers concerning their students’ scoring, the regional VASE director looked into it and found one issue in common: the judge. Several pieces, including Tenorio’s, were re-evaluated.
“I was happy that it was getting changed, because I could go to my family and be like ‘wait it actually did good,’ but it also kind of made me mad,” Tenorio said. “It was such a whirl of emotions. It made me madder than the initial two.”
Tenorio said she felt disappointed and ashamed when she first received the two score.
“My piece last year, which got a four, had less meaning behind it,” Tenorio said. “So this year, when I put more emotion and meaning behind the work, for it not to make it, felt horrible, because this piece actually meant a lot to me.”
After the re-evaluation, Tenorio scored a four and she then advanced to state.
“I don’t know what to expect because I’ve never gone before, but just going on the trip is exciting before I have to graduate and stuff,” she said. “I’m really glad that I’m able to have that opportunity. Before I moved here, I was in Washington, and they didn’t really give us the same opportunities that are offered here.”
Tenorio’s piece looks back on her childhood memories, emphasizing being young without the stress of adulthood.
“This is my last year in high school before I have to go off college, and be an adult,” she said. “I wanted to show appreciation for my family and the memories we’ve made.”
Her piece is a painting of a memory with several cardboard scraps attached that depict pencil sketches of other memories she has with her loved ones.
“The reason for [the cardboard] is because my family is a military family so we have to move a lot,” she said. “It was to represent fragments of memories that I don’t really remember, but that are still part of [my family’s] history, and it’s a subtle reference to the fact that we have to move a lot and we have to use boxes to move.”
Tenorio said VASE has given her the ability to express herself.
“Just making the piece, I was able to put a lot of feelings that I usually don’t communicate to my family and other people,” she said “I was kind of able to actually give people my art and put it into the world, which was nice.”
Brown said she is proud of Tenorio’s journey.
“To see her grow as an artist and really go out of her comfort zone with the piece that she made is pretty cool,” she said.
After making it to the state level in VASE for the past two years, it is no surprise that junior Daphne Davenport has yet again blown regional judges away with her artistic abilities, and will compete at a state level for the third year in a row this April.
“It’s a common feeling as an artist to feel like your art is evolving backwards, each year with this competition I’ve gotten to see how much I’ve actually improved,” Davenport said.
This year, Davenport’s piece titled “Fleeting Presence, Enduring Reality” is a painting on a wood panel based off of a series of repeating dreams she had.
“I saw a loved one that had passed away, nearby but always silent, never interacting with the others in the dream, never saying anything, seemingly like they were there only to enjoy their company,” she said. “It was confusing to have these dreams. I often wondered if there was some meaning or reason behind them beyond just grief. I came to the conclusion that making art out of the experience is all I could really do in that regard.”
Her piece depicts an outdoor setting with two diagonal portraits of herself painted in different tones, connected by a spiral, that took her five months to make.
“I chose to portray it the way I did because I felt like the spirals and hollow figures depicted repetition and emptiness in a way that is accurate to how I felt,” she said.
She also said that this was her most out-of-comfort-zone piece she had ever made.
“I look forward to seeing how my piece does at state,” she said. “Anytime you’re willing to show something you worked hard on that is very personal to you- especially your art- it will always be nerve-wracking.”
Brown said that many were captivated by Davenport’s piece when put on display at the regional competition.
“There were people that were just stopping constantly and taking pictures of it,” she said. “I kind of hung back with her mom and her grandmother just watching people come by and take photos. I wanted to be like ‘I know that girl.’”
Brown has worked with Davenport throughout her high school career and said she came in already talented.
“Daphne already has a really good understanding of color theory and composition,” she said. “With her, what I really worked on was meaning and how to express that meaning.”
Davenport looks forward to state and already has some concepts in store for next year.
“[State] makes you feel like you’re a part of something bigger,” she said. “I have a few ideas in mind already [for next year]. It’s hard not to think about it because of how beneficial [VASE] has been for growing me as an artist.”
There is a Japanese tradition that claims folding 1,000 paper cranes can grant one’s wish.
Growing up, freshman Kara Fitzner attempted to do so several times, but would always grow impatient, now as a VASE competitor, Fitzner has accomplished the folding of 1,000 paper cranes, and her wish, in fact, came true.
“When Kara came to me she said ‘I want to make a piece that’s going to state,’” Brown said. “That was her goal.”
While trying to come up with an idea for VASE, Fitzner considered making an origami piece. Then she remembered the tale of the 1,000 paper cranes.
“I thought I could do something with that and then it snowballed,” Fitzner said.
After conceptualizing, the idea for her piece “1,000 wishes,” an image of a candle made out of different colored folded up paper cranes, each containing a wish, then glued down on a canvas, was created.
“I mostly thought it’d be cool to be so community involved, especially since VASE as a competition has a huge emphasis on the concept behind artwork,”Fitzner said. “I figured this would be really strong, and it also means something to me because when I was a kid I wanted to do the 1,000 cranes but I didn’t have the patience, so this is finishing it out for me.”
To complete her piece in time, Fitzner had a lot of planning to do. She created a google form in which students could submit up to three wishes, and even came up with math equations to solve for the amount of time certain steps would take her.
“She literally calculated how long it would take her to fold just one,” Brown said.
Fitzner individually wrote down each wish, folded each crane, and glued each crane onto the canvas.
“I started late October and I was literally gluing cranes on the last day,” Fitzner said. “During the end, I got calluses on both of my pointer fingers from folding so much.”
Fitzner said a large portion of the wishes students submitted were either humorous or very surface level. However, some were able to impact the way in which she sees her peers.
“[The wishes] were silly and kind of frivolous,” she said. “But a lot of people did put something they genuinely wanted. Most of it was material stuff such as money. But there were also some people that were like ‘I really want to find love,’ and that was really interesting, especially if it was someone I know, and didn’t expect that from.”
Fitzner said she hopes to Gold Seal at state.
“I look forward to hopefully winning some more,” she said. “That would be pretty neat.”
