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: Maquire Levi
School: East Anchorage High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: Hawaiian people believe in animal spirit guardians. These animal guardians are passed down from generation to generation, through the mother’s side. The shark is a guardian that has been passed down fromm y mother’s side. It has been in her family since the start of Hawaiian civilization. I was inspired to draw the shark because the shark is now my guardian.
Student/Artist’s Name: Geoffrey Dickfoss
School: East Anchorage High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: This piece is a sort of representation of the extension of my love for the out doors. So many ideas went through my head but this is the one that stuck out and it came out just as I wanted.
Student/Artist’s Name: Jori Reynolds-Dovell
School: East Anchorage High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: In naming this piece, I had to think long and hard. The first question I broached within myself was, “What does this piece of art I have created mean to me?” I took the picture I used as a reference at the bus stop with no prior thought or intention to create art. If I was being totally honest, it didn’t mean much to me. Not enough for the naming process to be easy for me. But I had created this piece, and put a part of myself into it. The piece deserved a name. Once I named it Psuedo Self, I found it meant more than I’d originally thought. With the amount of layering and redesign I’d done, it held a shroud of mystery. A light-eyed, smiling girl with no connections to reality, I found I related to the piece more than I did the face I saw in the mirror every day.
Artwork Dimensions: 18 inches wide x 22 inches tall
Student/Artist’s Name: Keira Kiyutelluk
School: East Anchorage High School
Grade: 9th
Artist Statement: I did this because Eskimo Dancing is my life and basketball too is my life. So the man is drumming but you can’t see him. The Eskimo is dancing. They are outside because it is traditional sometimes to be outside, but they dance in the gym most times.
Student/Artist’s Name: Laura Horton
School: East Anchorage High School
Grade: 11th
Artist Statement: This drawing represents generations in Alaska. It depicts a tree, my father, and myself. The layout of the drawing lets the viewer see, in a less obvious way, the number 100, because it is the 100th anniversary of the city of Anchorage. The people are wearing fur trimmed hoods to acknowledge the Native heritage in Alaska. It is drawn in graphite and white gel pen.