Back in the fall, high school artists around the country submitted artworks and portfolios to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Several students got awards and prizes. There were numerous Gold Key, Silver Key, and honorable mentions awarded to our students. These winners advanced to a national level of judging and two students received silver medals: seniors Gabi Clark and Jayda Rhodes.

Gabi Clark//Rudolph

Reaction to Gold Key: “When I found out that I had won a Gold Key I was very surprised because I wasn’t expecting to win anything for my Mr. Rudolph painting. In my opinion I didn’t think this piece looked that good because it was my first time working with oil paints and it was very difficult. And then once I knew that my artwork was going on to nationals I definitely didn’t expect to win anything out of that because that’s every single state competing.”

Reaction to Silver Medal: “On March 13 I logged into the scholastic site and I had been nervous all day and expecting nothing and I open the site and see ‘congratulations you are a silver medalist’. I instantly started to cry my eyes out because this meant so much to me to know that my art could actually make it far.”

Jayda Rhodes//Yellow Flower

Reaction to Silver Key: “I didn’t think that my artwork was that good. I didn’t like the background and the setting but the judges must have. Every year the advanced students have the opportunity to take underwater photos. My friend modeled, and something about his yellow shirt against his red hair just made it pop.”

Reaction to Silver Medal: “I cried because I didn’t think that piece was going to make it that far. If you look at a lot of the other winners, vibrant colors seem to have caught the judge’s eyes and that was to my advantage.”

Their artwork will be displayed at the Carnegie Center in New York this June.