Maine Scholastic Arts Awards Winners

Look around! You may be walking among one of the winners of the Scholastic Art Awards, the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition award for creative students.

This February, some of Thornton Academy's very talented art students have received the Scholastic Art Awards for their incredible artworks. INK Magazine is honored to be featuring them. Once again, congratulations to all that have won the award!

First up is Virginia Bradford, an incredible photographer with the piece Double Punch which won her the Gold Key award.

"Double Punch" by Virginia Bradford '19

“I did my piece over the summer for no particular reason, since I wanted to do some 80s-style makeup. It was supposed to be pretty intense, with the makeup inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees, and a punching bag in the barn. One of the photos showed a kind of “tough” emotion and the other a more relaxed emotion, and I edited it to show both at the same time, as I figured I could use the final product for my art portfolio. This is my second time winning a Scholastic Award, but my first time getting a Gold Award, and it’s pretty nice to get recognition for your work”, Virginia shared the inspiration behind this work. ​

Next up, we have another Gold Key winner, Anna Bruner, with her mesmerizing photograph Summer Day.

"Summer Day" by Anna Bruner '19

Anna also shares the story behind Summer Day with us, providing an insight into her process of creating art:
"My photograph “Summer days”, was less planned and more spontaneous. I have a pool behind my house and I invited my friend Ellie Mason over to swim. When Ellie was at my house she showed me an underwater camera she’d probably bought at Walmart. It was one of the disposable cameras. We spent the day taking pictures of each other jumping, diving, and sinking. I asked her to just float because I like that imagery. I see it a lot in movies. Anyway, we got the film developed and I noticed the color that was on the sides of the image. I believe this is because I didn’t fully turn the knob on the camera so part of the border film was captured. It looks edited but it’s just a part of the image. I didn’t add it into my AP Portfolio until around when the AP studio art class applied for the scholastic art and writing competition. I guess I didn’t consider myself enough of a photographer, since I consider myself an illustrator or painter first. I have an Instagram called: anna_the_artsy with my art if the readers would be interested.
Winning the Gold Key for my photograph was a moment of pride and confusion. It opened a door for a possibility of photography. As I said before photography wasn’t quite what I was known for among my art friends. But, it was cool to go the exhibit and seeing a full scale print of my photograph and people walking up and seeing it. It’s always nice to have hard work recognized. I hope that I’ll be able to keep having those moments of pride. I’m glad that the photograph that I was awarded the gold key for was of a friend close to my heart." 

It is a truly rewarding moment when your work is recognized, and you deserve it!
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Moving on, we have the beautiful painting House in the Primary of Cordelia Perry, the work which wins her the Silver Key award.

"House in the Primary" by ​Cordelia Perry '19

This painting is aesthetic, colorful, light and bright. Cordelia did a great job expressing her feelings and memories through this lovely piece. The texture is so tasty you can feel the painting coming to life. 

And then, Virginia strikes again, this time even harder and the Art Portfolio Time Travel got her the Silver Key as a second award. She is ready to conquer the world of art!

"Time Travel" by Virginia Bradford '19

Well this may not be the Gold Key piece, but I actually like it even more than her other work!

Last but not least, talented artist Megan Bainbridge with the amazing work Let’s Get This Breadth wins the Honorable Mention prize for Art Portfolio:

"Let's Get This Breadth" by Megan Bainbridge '19

“I’m very thankful to have received a Scholastic Arts award for my portfolio submission. The piece I had on display is titled “Glossy Lips” and was inspired by the Instagram makeup artist Daryna Barykina (instagram@daryna_barykina). After seeing her macro photos of lips, I decided to photograph my own lips up close with varying sparkles, glosses, and lipsticks. After selecting my favorite image, which only featured a clear lipgloss, I used watercolor to create the piece. My focus in creating this piece was to exaggerate the texture and highlight of a pair of lips. My intention was to make a familiar body part initially appear unfamiliar. I’m also very thankful for the help I received from my AP Studio Art teacher. Ms. Thomas aided everyone in the class with submitting their artwork to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.”, Megan shares with us. 

This piece puts life into the alphabet, giving each letter a meaning and this is truly admirable art. I can't wait to see more of Megan's work in the future, as clearly there is something very unique about her style and technique in art. 

Congratulations to all the artist that win the Maine Scholastic Art Awards! We are very proud of you and you are all amazing. We hope that you will continue to make arts and make this world a more beautiful place!