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02/28/2018 06:00 AMHigh school students these days—when they’re not falling in love or visiting their grandparents, they’re combating stigmas about seeking help for mental health, documenting rising water levels along the shoreline, and raising awareness about the mounting trash crisis in our throwaway society.
That is the inspiring message conveyed by a powerful exhibit at the Sill House Gallery, Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, featuring works from high school artists from all along the shoreline and the Connecticut River valley, as part of the Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA) Future Choices Visual Arts Competition. The competition, in its 34th year, features work created by high school students and judged by a panel of fine arts professionals. Categories include ceramics, drawing, mixed media, painting, pastels, photography, prints, sculpture, and video. The exhibition is free and open to the public. The competition also recognizes high schools that champion the arts as a vibrant part of the curriculum.
The works are on display at the gallery, at 84 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, through Tuesday, March 6, Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be an awards reception Saturday, March 3 from 3 to 5 p.m., with a snow date of Sunday, March 4, from 3 to 5 p.m.
There also will be a reception on Tuesday, March 6 from 5:30 to 7:30, featuring refreshments including prosecco for the adults. In addition to featuring works from the exhibit, the reception is being offered as an opportunity for people to learn more about the SAA—which serves 24 towns and fights for communities’ right to access the arts—and its executive director, Eric Dillner, who also represents Arts in Connecticut on the Connecticut Non-Profit Alliance Board of Directors, and who works with legislators to advocate for the arts. Dillner says the Future Choices competition not only recognizes great artwork, it also allows the students to understand great artwork is valued by our society.
Liam Bennett, a high school student from Madison who participated in the show both last year and this year, says that is exactly correct. He is headed to Hofstra to study film production, with a minor in photography.
“I got a scholarship, which helped a lot,” he says. “And, thanks to the SAA, I realized it could be an actual profession for me.”
Beyond that, it helped him realize he had a passion for creative work and that, first place prize or not, there was value in the process of creation.
“We worked really hard on this,” he says of the work he and his friend submitted in the video category this year. “And we had a lot of fun making it.”
Attacking Stigmas
Emily Archer’s etchings Still and Storm hang prominently over the fireplace in the entryway of the Sill Gallery. They won not only first prize in the print category, but also the highest award overall, best in show. Archer, a senior who attends Lyme/Old Lyme High School and plans to go on to art school, says she’s pleased the works are displayed prominently because they represent an issue that is both personal and extremely important: mental health and the importance of attacking stigmas that prevent people from attending to their mental wellness.
“I want to help others in breaking the stereotypes and stigmas,” she says.
The prints, also displayed prominently on the Future Choices brochure printed as part of the exhibit, show a young woman struggling with voices that scream “you’re still fat.” She’s grimacing and holding her hands over her ears. Worries about psychosis, anorexia, calorie counting, body weight, and body mass index assail her. She combats those worries with affirmations like “breathe in, breathe out.”
Archer says her works are drawn both from her notebooks and from what she has experienced, and that the experience of communicating her anguish was healing. Anorexia is one of the most common chronic diseases among young people, following only asthma and type 1 diabetes, and young people from the ages of 15 to 24 are particularly at risk, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Archer says part of her goal was to make sure people know they have plenty of company when it comes to combating mental health problems.
“It was definitely hard for me to admit it and to get to a place where I could talk about it,” she says. “I wanted to show what it is and how it feels and not just with words...I want people to know they are not alone, and help other people share this knowledge.”
Falling in Love
Sometimes romantic relationships can be fraught, stressful, and a source of anxiety for teenagers. Other times, they are sweet and pure, full of hope and joy. That latter scenario permeates Inspired, a video created by Liam Bennett and Scott Wadeline, seniors at Daniel Hand High School (DHHS) in Madison. The project was started as work Wadeline was doing for a Movie Making One class being taught by Gregory Gallo at DHHS. Bennett, along with the students starring in the film, Mario Callbro and Lindsay Doyle, also DHHS students, helped out mainly “for our love of film,” says Bennett. The video took about 10 hours to make, and was made over the course of about two days.
The video is “guy meets girl, guy loses his mind for girl, guy dreams about girl,” Wadeline says. And then they dance. It has an early Hollywood dream sequence feel to it, and that was part of the point, Wadeline says. The charge was to create a silent film to music, which was a challenge for Wadeline, because dialogue is his strength, and there were limitations created by music copyright issues. So he created a storyboard with a focus on visuals, and searched for the right kind of music. He says the process of creating a silent film allowed him to better understand how to communicate, working through the characters rather than just dialogue.
Dillner said it took top honors in its category because of its consistent look and feel throughout, its exploration of starts and stops, and its beautiful lighting. He said the judges included two cinematographers, and three from other disciplines.
“All five picked this,” he said.
Rising Water
The vulnerability of the community near Harveys Beach off of Plum Bank Road in Old Saybrook has been studied by local, state, and national experts with a focus on rising water levels. It is one of several areas in that town, and all along the shoreline, that experience periodic tidal flooding, which sometimes makes the beaches and parts of the neighborhoods nearby into little islands in the midst of flooded wetlands. It’s the subject of government reports and concerned discussions among local residents, who also love the area for its beauty, beach access, and community. That combination of vulnerability and beauty struck Samuel Swap of Essex, a senior at Valley Regional High School.
That vulnerable beauty is captured in his photo Road to Nowhere, which took first place, photography, in the Future Choices competition. He also won an honorable mention in photography for American Green, featuring ominous-looking men in business suits on the streets of New York City, and he won another award for a sculpture, The Process, a work inspired by a camera given to him by his grandfather, a veteran of the Korean War. The camera no longer works, so Swap dissected it, and arranged it in a way that shows how a photo is captured by a camera.
Swap says the competition helped him find focus in pursuit of a specific goal.
“This made me realize the creative passion I have,” he says. “I admit I’m not always a good student. As my English teacher puts it, I’m a selective learner. But when I can focus in on something I am passionate about, I can excel.”
He says he is inspired by powerful photographs he has seen in publications like National Geographic.
“I love the way they tell these stories, stories of people who would otherwise go unheard,” he says.
A Simple Monster Pot
When thinking about what she wanted to create, Amanda Murphy found herself remembering a pot she saw in her grandparents’ house, something simple, with elegant lines.
“And then I did a bigger one,” she says.
She calls it Monster Pot.
Simple and elegant yes, but the process of creation was full of technical challenges. It was a struggle to keep it symmetrical, and then she worried it was so big that someone might inadvertently knock it off its perch in the art room. She says it took a long time to create and that, when she was done, she was happy with it and felt like it was something that was not only special, but special to her because of her memories of her grandparents’ house.
When she built it, she did not know she would be entering it into a contest. But then she did, and she won first price in the ceramics category.
“And that was special, too,” she says.
Sharing a Strong Message
In Isabelle McDonald’s first place drawing, The Virtual World of Bees, bees are buzzing amidst flowers, but the flowers will yield no nectar or pollen, they are merely images on a computer screen. McDonald, of Essex, who is a senior at Valley Regional High School, says her goal was to juxtapose the clash between technology and nature. “Bees are endangered, which is made worse by a lack of wildflowers. I wanted to play on that,” she says.
She says participating in the contest was a thrill.
“I was excited that people got to see my work,” says McDonald. “My goal was to share a strong message in my work. I want people to see it.”
Her other drawings on display in the exhibit attack other issues related to the environment, including overconsumption and deforestation. She says her art is supported by research she does into these issues.
“That makes me aware of how big these issues are,” she says. “I also think about my life, and how my actions affect these issues.”
She says participating in the discussion about the environment, through her artwork, makes her feel like she is making a contribution.
“I definitely feel less guilty. I’m trying to help,” she says.
Dillner says McDonald’s work is entirely representative of what SAA is trying to encourage.
“That totally represents what we want to see. It is totally creative and relevant to every one of us. Art like this gives us the opportunity to look in a mirror, and make us look at something that maybe we were not looking at before,” he says.
For more information and a full list of winners, visit www.shorelinearts.org/future-choices.