Student/Artist’s Name: Mercedes Petrilla
School: East Anchorage High School
Grade: 10th
Artist Statement: My shoes are based on a local flavor theme. On each shoe is a different design that I would think would best describe Alaska’s most beautiful and cool qualities. For the top of the right shoe, I painted one of our fiercest predators, the Grizzly Bear. For the left shoe, I painted the northern lights, since seeing them is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. On the back, when both shoes are together, they spell out “Alaska” in gold letters.
Artwork Dimensions: 8 inches wide x 3 inches tall x 10.5 inches long
Student/Artist’s Name: McKenzie Battles
School: North Pole High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I’ve been interested in altered books for a while and wanted to try different forms. This piece was one of my first and I really like how it turned out. I had an image in my mind of how it would turn out and it came pretty close. It was very time consuming and took a while to cut the center of the pages out. The mask was made from the pages of the center as were the horns. The book itself is a used Britannica Encyclopedia.
Artwork Dimensions: 8.5 Wide x 13.75 High x 4.625 Wide
Artist Statement: At Yupik Days 2013, I was in the Miss Sivuqaq contest, and my mother drew these tattoos on my face, which she said were like the ones that were tattooed on my grandmother’s face. The flower on the forehead reminds me of the bluebells that grow everywhere around my grandmother’s house in the summer. The moon represents the peace in my family and the freedom that I am given, the woman’s knife my culture and tradition, the coffee cup the joys of my life that I drink up each day, the rabbit my childhood when my friends and I would play with a rabbit, and the heart my love for my family and my love for life.
Student/Artist’s Name: Haley Rogers
School: Houston High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: My artwork was about transformation. I transformed a human face into something magical and intriguing to some. What I wanted to show was that life is to short to be boring and dull, and sometimes being wild is an extraordinary thing. So what better way to express that then to make the perfect party animal?
Student/Artist’s Name: Moriah Soriano
School: Juneau-Douglas High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: When we had to pick an animal, I chose a lizard. I wanted it to be different – not furry and cute. It quickly became a dragon. It took a long time to attach all the scales. I’m going to use a translucent glaze to show off the texture.
Student/Artist’s Name: Ukiah Engen
School: Juneau-Douglas High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: Foxes are so often portrayed as mischievous tricksters, but their pelts have been an important part of Alaska’s economic history. I see this fox as intelligent, but generous – It’s allowing itself to be used by man.
Student/Artist’s Name: Esme Brudie
School: West Anchorage High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: Each of these four faces were sculpted in my advanced art class. I sculpted them as a study of different facial expressions and personalities that I have encountered, thus the title of “Faces on the Street”.
Artwork Dimensions: 2 inches high X 1.5 inches wide each
Student/Artist’s Name: Lisa Wisner
School: Homer High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: Overall as an artist, I am trying to conjure emotional or intellectual stimulus to anyone who looks at my pieces. Each piece says something not only about me, but what I am trying to achieve technically and creatively. I am adamant about providing a natural context for each piece and I am currently working with animals, people, and varying abstract elements. My influences come from not only ceramic artists, but contemporary artists like Cai Guo-Qiang. Cai works with materials to create large exhibits and fascinating canvas pieces. The canvas pieces are what he calls “gunpowder” art, and the colors are a chaotically beautiful mixture of earth-like hues, something that I draw to for inspiration. Aside from his obvious artistic genius he finds ways to integrate various provocative concepts that keep viewers interested long after they visit his pieces. As far as historical influence, I have found my preferred technique, coil building, and I try to make smooth flowing shapes. Along with the pieces themselves, I try to focus on design and work outside of regular aesthetic confinement. I want my pieces to stand out because of their emotional context, and I am considering exploring political and controversial art; something that will resonate with someone on a primal and emotive level.
Artwork Dimensions: 18 Inches High x 12 Inches Wide
Student/Artist’s Name: Shatarah Keithley
School: Valdez High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: I love art and I love to read. When my school presented an upcycle book project I was instantly inspired to take a book headed to the garbage and transform it into a visual masterpiece.