The State VASE art show, which stands for Visual Arts Scholastic Event, will be in San Marcos at the high school on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26. This year Jackson County will be represented by Ganado and Edna, which are sending six and four students, respectively.
Ganado’s art teacher, Sarah Ardner, is also the Regional Director for the VASE competition, meaning she’s in charge of the entire Region III, and going through a week of virtual qualifications before the event even begins.
“It’s tough because I have to run the event in addition to bringing kiddos. It’s such an intense competition because the state requires them to use original sources, and they’re only using sources they took, not using anything from the Internet, so there’s a lot of checking for that.”
The State VASE art show will have visiting artists, workshops, art stations, and a gallery of pieces. At the regional event, around 300 pieces were displayed, whereas at state, Ardner said it’s close to 3,000 pieces.
“The day will end with an awards ceremony. At this ceremony, students who have won Gold Medals will be presented,” said Edna’s art teacher, Matthew Beaird. “A Gold Medal is like placing at State, also at the ceremony memorial scholarships will be handed out.”
The second Jackson County exhibition, named Connecting the Dots, highlights 45 juried works of art by high school artists from Edna, Industrial and Ganado. It’s located in Ganado at Top Hand Events, 8936 Highway 59 North. From March 17-21, the event is open free to the public for viewing between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. On Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m., Austin artist and muralist Fidencio Duran will speak. On Friday, the last day, a teacher- led student art discussion will be from 2 to 4 p.m.
Ganado High School Ardner has been with the school for four years and said it’s a good year for her as an art teacher because the majority of students who are going to State VASE have been with her since they were freshman and she’s enjoyed seeing their growth.
Mattalie Lindsey, Alexis Lugo, Elaina Perez, Xochitl Robles, Liliana Serna, and Abby Tegeler will be representing Ganado.
“Four of them are in AP art for the second year, last year they submitted their AP portfolio to a college board and received college credit for their artwork,” Ardner said, “and they’re on track to do that again. So a lot of these VASE pieces are part of their portfolio.”
Lindsey, a senior, will be experiencing her first year at state. Her piece, Eternal Self, came about by layering 40 layers of house paint, which then she carved a face into it, using her own as a reference.
“It took me a couple of weeks to make,” she said. “Out of all the emotions I could’ve chosen, anger resonated with me the most.”
This is senior Alexis Lugo’s third year at state, and hers, Rough Diamond, is made of pine cones, acorns, and other things found in nature, put together to make an armadillo. Her inspiration came from her childhood in nature and her father.
“He took me out to campsites and campgrounds to find random things to bring home,” she said. “It’s through him, nature, and my love for art that I used my creativity to use three of my most loved things together in one piece.”
Junior Elaina Perez used several types of mediums for her work, Life Beyond. Her inspiration is the lack of knowledge about what can be found underwater, with the world having studied life but only to have discovered five percent of what’s in the oceans.
“It leaves a lot to the unknown,” she said. “I sprayed foam to make a coral, made a bunch of animals using either cardboard, paper mâché, or porcelain clay.”
Boxed In is the name of Xochitl Robles’ work, a sophomore who will be attending her second year at state. She tried photography for her piece, a first for her, in making a visual representation of how she feels when she’s overthinking something.
“My artwork represents being trapped in your mind,” she said. “I took a picture of two cardboard pieces and made it look like a wall, and then I edited myself in there to make it seem like I was trapped inside.”
This will be her second time to state for senior Serna, who made a self-portrait titled Flourishing into Who You Are. She said it’s a privilege to represent Ganado at state.
“I used a piece of birchwood, Prismacolors, made flowers out of crepe paper, and used wire to wrap around her piece to create a vine,” she said. “On the sides are roughed up, transferred images of myself, and the background of the board is watercolor.
“The pictures in the background symbolize one’s past troubles, while the main portrait represents a new person with new beginnings. The vine of flowers shows them blossoming into their full form.”
Stanley is the name of sophomore Abby Tegeler’s piece, which is a large 3-D gecko, roughly two to three feet. While the others started their works in January, Tegeler started in September, using cardboard for the base, paper mâché, paint, and lots of hot glue for texture.
“I’ve always loved reptiles, and always wanted one, so I felt it would be a cool sculpture idea,” she said.
Ardner said despite the students competing with others from all sizes of schools, Ganado sends as many artists percentage- wise as the other schools, if not more.
“We really love being part of the Jackson county art community and partnering with Edna and Industrial,” Ardner said. “We’re really proud of what they’re doing.”
Edna High School
Beaird has been with the school for nine years, and spoke some on how he views VASE and what it does for the students, saying the competition gives them the opportunity to develop their voice and style by trying out what works for them.
“For VASE I always tell the students this is an opportunity to explore a subject like they are a professional artist. They’re not given a theme, so it’s either about mastering their craft or exploring their expressive side,” he said. “VASE is about trying new things within art.”
The four attending State VASE are junior Aiden Hoskins, sophomore Madelyn Rogers, junior Andy Schroer, and junior Krish Thakor.
“We began competing within Region III, where the judges interviewed us. If we did well we move on to Area, without an interview, and then the ones who place in the top move to State,” Schroer explained.
Hoskins said going into the interview is nerve-wracking, but once inside one realizes the judges are quite nice.
“They ask a few simple questions, ask why you made the piece, how you made it, the mediums you used, and you just talk about it,” Hoskins said. “You get more comfortable with it as it goes along.”
This is Hoskins’ first year to state, and said it feels amazing. His piece is named Lost in the Pages, made with watercolors and Prismacolor pencils. He posed a friend of his sitting in a chair and reading a book inside the Edna art room.
“I started looking for some interesting angles of her,” he explained. “I found my favorite angle down low where I was looking up at her and she had an irritated expression on her face. I thought it looked good so I drew it.”
Madelyn Rogers’ work is called Beyond the Mirror, drawn and colored in with Prismacolors. Her sister Amy, who’s seven years old, poised for the picture, and was the inspiration behind the piece.
“My little sister was putting on make-up so I took a picture of it and drew her. It reminded me of how I was introduced to makeup,” she said. “It’s meant to highlight the beauty standards for girls.”
This is Schroer’s first time to state, although if one looked at his piece one might not think so: his use of charcoal highlights the black and white angles proficiently, and looks as bright as if it was in color.
“It’s called In the Spotlight, and it’s a scene of me playing my saxophone in a dark area under a spotlight,” he said. “I took a picture of myself using the timer on my phone and a tripod. I also used a flashlight to create a spotlight effect.”
This is Thakor’s first year to State VASE also, and his is named New Town Vision, which is a painting of downtown Edna. In the background, sits a blueprint of large sky-rises, building a futuristic version of Edna.
“I’m interested in architecture and engineering, so I was interested in how a small town can evolve into the future,” Thakor said. “I painted the town first and in the back I began a simple blue and used a white pencil to draw in the buildings.”
Beaird said overall, he’s been impressed with the art group’s quality and effort. “The work we brought, the quality is extremely high, and that’s on them that they did such accurate, strong, labor-intensive work.”
