High School Art Exhibition winners picked
Medicine Hat College’s One on One Gallery was the stage for this year’s announcement of the High School Art Exhibition contest winners on Thursday.
The annual exhibition had more than 60 submissions this year, eclipsing last year’s total of 54. Student works from Crescent Heights, Monsignor McCoy and Medicine Hat High School were all represented on the walls of the gallery. The works were judged based on use of technique, subject matter and general impact on the viewer by Visual Communications faculty at MHC.
This year’s winner was Hat High student Kayley Schnare. Schnare painted a dramatic mountain scene in acrylic entitled “Banff Night Lights.”
“I have been doing art my whole life. I’ve always really enjoyed it, and it has been a passion of mine,” said a thrilled Schnare. “It is nice to be featured like this, and have your artwork shown to other artists and to be able to see other students’ artwork from the city. Winning is a nice bonus — it’s the icing on the cake.”
The second-place winner was Crescent Heights student Lucas Barbosa Ramos with his acrylic landscape painting entitled “Pasture.” He was not present to receive his award. Third-place winner was Sarah Edison for her emotional charcoal diptych “Damaged, Not Broken.” Edison said the work was inspired by a video game character but she intentionally showed only parts of the haggard woman’s face to heighten the emotional impact of the work.
“This character is very distraught, and I wanted to show that without explicitly saying it, but rather by demonstrating it through her facial expressions,” said Edison.
Honourable mentions went to students Chloe Komanchuk (Hat High) and Emily Adcock (Monsignor McCoy).
Dean Smale, Visual Communications department co-ordinator for MHC, said he was happy to have all the works displayed together for the whole community to see at the college’s gallery.
“It helps make people aware of the great young talent that is around the city. And it is another way for us to support culture and the arts in the city,” he said.