Student/Artist’s Name: Kayla Messina
School: West Valley High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: This is a graphite drawing of my horses. I was working on the composition and trying to make the drawing feel intimate. The smaller size helps make it feel like you can get close and personal with them.
Student/Artist’s Name: Karli Steel
School: West Valley High School
Grade: 11th
Artist Statement: This is a self-portrait that I did with graphite. I worked on getting the shadows and unique patterns that they made on my face. I was really happy with the outcome of the drawing. I like the composition.
Title of Art Piece: Life and Death Through the Heart
Category: Drawing – 2016
Student/Artist’s Name: Savannah Bowery
School: North Pole High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I was inspired by the flow of blood throughout the heart to make this piece. The right atrium and ventricle shows a dead rainforest due to it receiving and pumping the deoxygenated out. The left atrium and ventricle show a thriving rainforest due to them getting the newly oxygenated blood and pumping it to the rest of the body. I wanted to keep the contrast of life and death throughout the roots, the birds and the differing intensity of colors.
Artwork Dimensions: 12 inches high X 9 inches Wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Katrina Buchanan
School: Juneau-Douglas High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: Living in Southeast Alaska I am constantly amazed by the environment around me. This pen-and-ink landscape is an ode to the Art of nature.
Student/Artist’s Name: Katrina Buchanan
School: Juneau-Douglas High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: This piece is part of my Advanced Placement Art portfolio concentration, focusing on the interaction between humans and nature. It was created to draw attention to mistreatment of the environment. The figure can be interpreted as a woman, or as Gaea – a figure in Greek mythology who represents the Earth.
Student/Artist’s Name: Deanna Kendall
School: Valdez High School
Grade: 10th
Artist Statement: I’ve always though the idea to fly with feather like wings to be beautiful, even if fictional. Why not create the things we love? I’m not experienced with working with zentangle patterns, so this art peice was different for me, and I liked that about it.
Artwork Dimensions: 24 Inches High x 18 Inches Wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Alyson Driskell
School: Soldotna High School (prep)
Grade: 9th
Artist Statement: My drawing is of a tiger, who are on the endagered species list. Many reserves are trying to help repopulate but poachers have causeed a lot of damage.
Student/Artist’s Name: Brighton Turvin
School: Soldotna High School (prep)
Grade: 9th
Artist Statement: This drawing demonstrates the companionship and bond in which animals and people can have, this bond between soldier and dog is extra special and I tried capturing that in graphite.
Student/Artist’s Name: Makana Cron
School: Valdez High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I wanted to have have the face melting because a while back I had tried something similar but it never turned out. I recently got some new colored pencils and wanted to incorporate those in some way. Also, at the time I was listening to a lot of music by this artist.
Artwork Dimensions: 12 inches high x 9 Inches wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Stephanie Torres
School: Unalaska City School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: What inspired me to create my art piece is the love for my brother. He is one of the most important people in my life and I love him so much. My brother and I are very close to each other. We share important facts and enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes we fight but we always reconcile because at the end of the day we’re still siblings. That will always stay the same no matter what.
Artwork Dimensions: 24 Inches High x 18 Inches Wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Liam Andersen
School: Unalaska City School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I drew this picture because I needed to find a face for a portrait assignment and this was the only good one that came to mind. It’s the face of the protagonist of a video game that makes interesting commentaries on human nature via the change of an average twenty-something into a jungle warrior. The character goes from SoCal party boy to John Rambo over the course of the story, and I wanted to put into black and white an issue that, in reality, has countless shades and factors to it. The ebony pencil medium was supposed to exemplify this—the character is trying to cope with two different worlds (the one he comes from and the one he’s in) and struggles to find a medium between the two because he can’t see either side clearly anymore. In short, I wanted to use black and white as a medium to represent the oversimplification of human nature.
Artwork Dimensions: 18 Inches High x 12 Inches Wide
Title of Art Piece: Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am?
Category: Drawing – 2016
Student/Artist’s Name: Evangeline Unger
School: Unalaska City School
Grade: 10th
Artist Statement: The art piece has to do with shedding light on who I think I am. I left the body of myself black and white, and placed the color, as a sort of reflection on the person that I think I am.
Artwork Dimensions: 12 Inches High x 9 Inches Wide
Title of Art Piece: Light at the End of the Tunnel
Category: Drawing – 2016
Student/Artist’s Name: Megan Walker
School: Valdez High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I decided to work with charcoal because it portrays depth, that I think other media can’t achieve. I am proud to say this is an original piece. I had a good friend pose for the piece. I am also working to capture human emotion in my drawings.
Artwork Dimensions: 31.5 inches wide x 24 inches high
Student/Artist’s Name: Larra Bagsic
School: Unalaska City School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: Amazed by the different shades of pink, purple, and orange, I imagine myself in a world full of these peachy colors. With the facial expression that I have, I believe that when drawing a self-portrait, our faces should be relaxed in order to see the real you. My passion for floral and tribal patterns is ineffable and so I have combined these images with my art to show a part of my personality. The different varieties of colors and shapes that I have included all tie into who I really am inside.
Artwork Dimensions: 12 Inches High x 9 Inches Wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Joshua Doucet
School: Valdez High School
Grade: 11th
Artist Statement: Through the struggle between light and dark, a single guard stands, forever dividing the two, and forever consumed by their conflict. The loose lines of the ink mixed with the charcoal creates a surrealistic atmosphere encompassing the subject and it’s stoic pose.
Artwork Dimensions: 18 inches high x 24 inches wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Jonah Nitisaporn
School: A.J. Dimond High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I have been working with charcoal landscapes for a few years now; I enjoy the subtle value changes and gradients that can be accomplished with course paper and fine charcoal. The final pieces give a dream like quality and provoke emotion.
Student/Artist’s Name: Garrett Rau
School: Houston High School
Grade: 11th
Artist Statement: I drew this piece to try and enhance the shades of the original photograph. To show the sad side of a war with two men trying to revive and young boy
Student/Artist’s Name: Jonah Nitisaporn
School: A.J. Dimond High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I continue to push the envelope with creating smooth gradients with charcoal. I use the landscapes around me in Alaska, for what better subject matter can be found?
Student/Artist’s Name: Annie Wang
School: Palmer High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I chose to draw a charcoal self portrait. I found charcoal to be a fairly easy and versatile material to use. With careful shading and tone, I could make stark contrasts with the darker values against the lighter ones, make small details, and apply a certain quality to my artwork that I couldn’t obtain with any other medium. I like how charcoal can make any drawing seem abstract and melancholic to any subject given. It tends to demonstrate a sort of meaning, a sorrowful ambiance, because of the dark blacks and soft grays it uses. I believe that by drawing my own face, a person that i can be assured I know well enough to draw accurately, both in character and personality, I can show a better depth of emotion. I showed a darker side of my personality, one that’s not normally shown in my daily life, complementing the dark sentiments of the material, as well as relating that inner feeling, that sort of deeper meaning, to my artwork.
Student/Artist’s Name: Areanias Mathis
School: North Pole High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: This piece is an ink pen and ink wash piece that shows a water dragon fighting a phoenix. This piece is a part of a mythical creatures series of art pieces and I wanted to do some expressive work with the various aspects of elements found in mythical creatures, which translates into fire birds and water dragons wouldn’t likely get along so I thought it was a good chance to express a lot of movement on a large scale.
Artwork Dimensions: 22 inches high X 28 inches wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Brayden Herd
School: South Anchorage High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I really enjoy doing highly detailed pen and ink drawings that emphasize patterns. All of my pieces are free hand and take hours to do.