After 120 art students participated in the annual Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) on Feb. 8, 17 of them advanced to State. This put the school in third place in the district, ahead of NESA.
“I was extremely excited after the interview,” senior Axel Lemus said. “I was crossing my fingers all day, and when I found out, I told my mom. She’s always the first to know everything.”
Lemus’ piece is a self-portrait for his AP portfolio. He used a mechanical pencil and a 6B pencil to draw himself doing what he loves most, drawing during his first period AP art class.
“I was really excited that in my last year of high school I made it with only one piece competing,” Lemus said.
Junior My Le advanced to state with two art pieces. One of them was digital and based on a picture his cousin took of the market he used to live in front of when he was in Vietnam.
“Every day I would see people in and out of the market, people selling stuff, and people working hard,” Le said, “and I wanted to draw something about the women in my area because they work hard, so I thought I should appreciate them a little bit.”
The other art piece was done traditionally, and it’s a portrait of one of his friends. He made it as a gift for her because she suffers from anxiety. Finding out both of his pieces were state qualifiers helped him prove the importance of his art.
“When I found out that I got to State, I immediately called my dad because he was really nervous, “ Le said. “and I think [getting] an award in a contest like that really [helped me] because it proved to my dad that I can do something with art.”
The State qualifiers were Sophie Charles, Sarah Gerlach, Shelby lambrecht, Isabel Holland, My Le, Axel Lemus, Diego Ponce, Angelica Maldonado, Helen Montgomery, corrin Neely, Danny Nguyen, Robyn Ramos, Kaylee Jae Smith, and Alyssa Sorensen.
