MCHS artists make good showing

MCHS artists make good showing

Jan. 25, 2001

FROM LEFT, back row, Joe Siracusan, Breonna Noack, Jerome Tryon, and front row, Jennifer Siracusan and Noah Leonard, all students at Montezuma-Cortez High School, had artworks selected for the Colorado Scholastics Art Awards. Also having works chosen for the honors were Julius Slowman and Tony McComb (not pictured).

By Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

Seven Montezuma-Cortez High School art students have received statewide recognition for their talents, and two have been selected to progress to the national level.

Seniors Breonna Noack, Noah Leonard, Joe Siracusan, Julius Slowman, Tony McComb, along with junior Jerome Tryon and sophomore Jennifer Siracusan, represented MCHS, proving that the Southwest is rich with young artistic talents.

And Jennifer Siracusan and Noack received Gold Key honors in the drawing category, ranking them as two of only 20 students from Colorado whose pieces will be entered into competition at the national level in that category.

MCHS art teacher Kimberley Sheek said each year students submit their works to the Colorado Scholastic Arts Show, where more than 2,000 entries are narrowed down to the top 17 percent. Those works are then displayed at the show at the Museum of Outdoor Arts in Englewood and judged for awards.

"It’s an honor just if it’s selected (for the show)," Sheek said.

Then, at the state show, there are three divisions breaking down the awards.

"You get an honorable mention if it’s selected and just hangs," Sheek said. "If it’s a state award, then it’s a Silver Key, which is a little bit higher than honorable mention. If it gets a Gold Key, then it goes with the other Gold Keys in the state and it goes on to nationals in New York."

The national competition is run the same as the state, where several entries from across the nation compete for a select few spots in a gallery in Washington, D.C.

Slowman, McComb, Tryon, and Joe Siracusan received honorable mentions at the state show, all in the drawing category. Leonard received two awards for separate pieces in drawing, both an honorable mention and a Silver Key.

"The drawing category is the most commonly entered, so it actually is the most competitive," Sheek said. Drawing entries counted for more than one-fourth of the total pieces at the show.

Jennifer Siracusan’s drawing was done with color pencils and black paper.

"The main objects in the picture are tubes and ropes, and they kind of intertwine from the front to the back, so it sort of just disappears," she said. "It has a lot of perspective to it."

She said being selected as a Gold Key winner reassured her that art was something she wanted to pursue as a career.

"I think that it is a really big honor right now because I’m only a sophomore," she said. "It gives me a lot of confidence in my other artwork."

Noack said she was also encouraged by the recognition, adding that she too was looking towards a future in art.

"It’s something I can put on my résumé," she said.

Noack described her drawing as an oil pastel of a stomach.

"It was based on my concentration for my AP art portfolio, which is figures and oil pastels," she said.

Sheek said she hoped the high honors would draw attention to the students and the art department, bringing about scholarship possibilities and funding for the National Arts Honor Society.

"NAHS is a group of students whose main goal is to promote art in the schools and art in the community," she said. "We do things that are just for the kids, things that are for the school and things for the community."

The NAHS also gave the young artists a chance to see their works on display by sending a group of 11 to the show Jan. 11-14. Sheek said, along with four other students belonging to NAHS, the seven students traveled to Englewood where they saw first-hand the extent of their accomplishments.

"Going to actually see the Scholastics Art Show was really awesome," Noack said. "We got to see everybody else’s talent and where other people at other high schools were at, as compared to you and your high school."

Sheek said the trip served several purposes.

"The main reason we do the trip is to see their work that is on display," Sheek said. "When you see the work that is in there, you realize the caliber of your work."

The trip also offers an opportunity to drive home some points about the difficulties of critiquing art.

"Judging an art show is very subjective," Sheek said. "You try to be objective and follow criteria."

However, regardless of evaluating art based on originality, creative expression and technical merit, Sheek said subjectivity inevitably becomes a factor.

"You can put your piece of art in an art show and it might get best of show," Sheek said. "Then you submit it to an art show the next week and have it not even get in. That is the way it is."

She said four other students who were on the trip who did not have artwork featured at the show were motivated by the experience.

"They’re like, ‘I’m getting my work in the show next year,’" Sheek said.

The group also visited the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, where two recent MCHS graduates attend school.

Jennifer Siracusan said visiting with the two past MCHS students made her realize the worth of the local art program.

"He (one of them) said we really do have a good art program here (MCHS) and ‘take advantage of it’," she said. "It made me feel better because it seems like this is such a small town and we really don’t get a lot of support for the arts."

The results of the national contest will not be known until March but Sheek has high hopes for her students’ works.

Last year, of the Colorado entries sent, only nine received the honor of hanging in Washington — and one was from Cortez.