01/31/2007
· Education is an art ·
Jessica Selby , Daily Times

Earning scholastic awards can mean more than doing well in reading, writing and 'rithmetic. It can also mean excelling in arts like painting, photography and ceramics.
The annual Rhode Island Scholastic Art Awards honor just such excellence, and several local students have shown they have what it takes to make the grade.
According to Annette Dunkelman, an art teacher at Coventry High School, each art teacher in the state is allowed to select five of students' pieces for the Scholastic Art Awards contest. The entries can range from paintings to drawings and from jewelry to ceramics. Though the initial selection process can be quite challenging, Dunkelman said, as the teachers become more familiar with what the state-level judges are looking for and use that knowledge to make their choices, it eases the process.
"I know for myself, when I get down to the last 10 or so that I want to enter, I lay them all out on a table and think about what it is that the judges may look for and not something that I myself might like," she said.
Using that approach, Dunkelman said, she chose a handful of her students' work for the regional contest.
Winners of Scholastic Art Awards receive honorary keys - gold or silver. Gold Key Awards recognize the most exceptional work in each of the contest's myriad categories. Silver Key Awards indicate high honors in a given category. The best works are forwarded to a higher level of the competition. The Scholastic Art Awards are national in scope, according to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers Web site at www.scholastic.com/artandwritingawards/index.htm.
Senior Jeffrey Wilkinson's photography portfolio was one of five entries Dunkelman chose for the contest.
Wilkinson said his portfolio included close-up photos of a friend's eye, the sprinkles on a vanilla-frosted cupcake, the top of a cigarette lighter and an ant. He took the photos, he said, with his handheld Sanyo camera.
"I had taken about 90 pictures," Wilkinson said. "Some of them were portraits but most of them were up-close shots."
"I like to take pictures of things that people see in their everyday life but that they never really think twice about, like this ant for example," he said. "Ants are on the ground everywhere but we never really look at them."
The ant in Wilkinson's photo has now been looked at by hundreds of people and will be seen by more as his portfolio continues to go through the ranks in the Scholastics Art contest. Wilkinson's portfolio earned a place in further competition.
A painting by Coventry High School student Kailin Johnson will also be continuing in the arts awards contest. Johnson's watercolor of cake and tea, which she titled "Tea Time," earned a gold key award.
Justin Cady, the third winner from Coventry High School, earned a silver key for his ceramic sculpture of a dragon.
Warwick's Pilgrim High School also had three winners in the 2007 Rhode Island Scholastic Art Awards contest.
Kelly Cambroia, a junior at Pilgrim, earned a gold key award for printmaking. Seniors David Sormanti and Matt Silva earned silver keys.
Sormanti earned his award for a linoleum cut print.
"David's print was put into a category with hundreds of other students and was judged amongst painting and mixed-media entries," said Sharon Katseff, one of the art teachers at Pilgrim. "So the fact that he was one of only 25 others from all over the state to receive a silver key is pretty impressive."
Cambroia also entered a print, but of a very different type. Hers was put into the pattern category but was made to look like "an optical illusion," Katseff said. The pattern was made up of six rows of 3-inch squares, each of which appeared in a pattern design on an 18- by 24-inch piece of paper. It was a creation Katseff said "took a great deal of patience" to complete.
Cambroia's creation is now eligible to go onto higher competition.
"I was definitely surprised when I found this out," Cambroia said. "I didn't expect anyone to really even look at it never mind for it to win anything."
Silva was recognized with a silver key award for his digital photograph that captures a natural Conimicut beach setting. The photograph is a close-up shot of densely growing sea grass blowing in the wind against a backdrop of a crisp blue sky dusted with puffy white clouds.
"I had taken a bunch of random shots, this just happened to be the one that I felt stood out from the rest," Silva said. "I am glad that I did now, though, because the judges obviously liked it, too."
Silva's photo is on display in a digital photography art showcase inside Pilgrim High School.
In addition to the winners at Coventry and Pilgrim high schools, there were several winners from other Warwick schools at both the junior high and high school level.
Aldrich Junior High had seven winners with Courtney Dubois, Stephen Norato and Morgan Slaughter earning gold keys and Gilbert Garcia, Kayla Quirk, Vincent DeVito and Tia Peckham earning silver keys. Gorton Junior High School had five winners with a gold key going to Ryan Kania and silver keys going to Kaitlyn Chaffee, Kristen Hyle and Joshua Suarez. Jessica Beer was chosen an American Visions nominee. Winman Junior High School student Amber Rich was awarded a silver key.
Shelby Beamon, Simone Gauvin, Alicia Thomas and Jake Balzano from Toll Gate High School earned gold key awards. Grant Archer received a silver key. Thomas' fine arts portfolio was also recognized. Danielle Shaw and John Bajakian of Warwick Veterans Memorial High School were awarded silver keys.
A complete list of award winners from across the state can be found on the Rhode Island Art Education Association Web site at www.ri.net/RIAEA/.
The association is presenting the "Best of the Best" of the 2007 Rhode Island Scholastic Art Award winners on exhibit at The Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College through Friday.