Fairfax, Woodson, Lanier Student Artists Earn Regional Awards

W.T. Woodson High School students Byron Whitehead, Rebecca Meeker and Christian Yong won art awards at a regional awards ceremony last night. The awards ceremony also honored Fairfax High School's Monica Zinn and Lanier Middle School's Ho Jung Kim.

Over 400 middle and high school students won regional awards in the 2011 Scholastic Art Awards competition. On Tuesday evening, Gold and Silver Key winners were recognized at an awards ceremony at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College in the Ernst Community Cultural Center.  

“What we’re here about tonight is not something that can be measured on a standardized test," said Hunter Mill District school board member Stuart D. Gibson. "It’s not something you can bubble in. It’s something that is our essence and the essence of our young people, something to celebrate with pride and joy because we know that this is something that our community values and we want to nurture it and continue to grow."

The Arts Council of Fairfax County gave Whitehead a $1,000 scholarship, Meeker won the Best in Photography American Vision Award for "Crystal," and Yong won the Best in Mixed Media American Vision Award for "In Her Tube." Zinn was one of two film Gold Key award winners. Kim and his work “The Sprout of Peace” won the Superintendent’s Award for group one.

The competition is a national program that seeks to recognize the achievements of art students in grades 7th through 12th. The students’ teachers selected the submitted works last fall. All were processed by the program from January through March before they were reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of professional artists and art educators in the Washington, D.C. metro area.. 

This year, judges viewed and scored selections based on photographs of the actual artwork rather than viewing it in person. 

“[Judges] look for creativity, a unique vision for the student as well as a higher skill level than people would expect, so it’s a really interesting experience to see all that really great work come into one place and you get to look at it as an art teacher and see the signs of all these different schools,” said FCPS Fine Arts Resource Teacher Aaron Stratten. 

The panel reviewed more than 165,000 works and 1,677 of those entries came from FCPS students. A total of 171 students won Gold Keys, 141 students won Silver Keys and 136 were awarded Certificates of Merit for their work in one or more of the following categories: drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, ceramics and glass pieces, sculptures, digital art, film and animation, architecture, fashion, jewelry, comic art, design, mixed media, and portfolios. 

In addition to being recognized for the Scholastic Art Awards, students also received leadership team awards. South Lakes High School’s Katherine Stosch won the Cluster VIII Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work, Max Well; Chantilly High School’s Alejandra Colque won the Cluster VII Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work Self Portrait; West Springfield High School’s Catherine Kitrinos won the Cluster VI Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work The Conspirators; South County Secondary’s Sara Clarken won the Cluster V Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work Alter Metro; Sandburg Middle School’s Colleen Durant won the Cluster IV Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work Shadows on Water; Annandale High School’s Kevin Muller won the Cluster III Assistant Superintendent’s Award for his work I Have Mental Ilnesses Just Like Everyone Else; Marshall High School’s Ria Firth won the Cluster II Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work Trapped Reflections of Ephemerality; and Herndon High School’s Maggie Middleton won the Cluster I Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work The Veil.  

Frost Middle School’s Molly Helmer’s Vision of Peace and Hayfield Secondary School’s Ngozi Urama’s Self Portrait won the Fairfax County Public Schools School Board Awards for group one and two, respectively. Lanier Middle School’s Ho Jung Kim and his work The Sprout of Peace won the Superintendent’s Award for group one and Westfield High School’s Jung Lim’s Factory won for group two for the Superintendent’s Award. Glasgow Middle School’s Thanh Do won the group one Deputy Superintendent’s Award for Almost Free and Honu by Centreville High School’s Kelsey Kallapos won the Superintendent’s Award for group two. Liberty Middle School’s Keun II Lee won the Assistant Superintendent’s Award for Sofistication for group one and Madison High School’s Nicholas Soggin won the Assistant Superintendent’s Award for group two with Urban Canopy. 

Some of the biggest prizes of the night went to the Gold Key Portfolio students who won scholarship awards from the Arts Council of Fairfax County, Council for the Arts of Herndon/SAIC Technology and the Arts Program, Fairfax Art League, Lorton Arts Foundation, Springfield Art Guild and Vienna Arts Society. 

The Arts Council of Fairfax County gave out two other $1,000 scholarship awards to Annandale High School’s Kevin Muller and South County Secondary’s Sohaib Abbasi. The $1,000 Council for the Arts of Herndon/SAIC scholarship award went to Lee High School’s Meghan Nelson an the Lorton Arts Foundation selected Westfield High School’s Tara Kalaf as their $1,000 scholarship award winner. 

Fairfax Art League selected Westfield High School’s Marika Emmanuel as the their $500 scholarship award winner, the Vienna Arts Society $500 scholarship award went to West Potomac High School’s Bonnie Morgan and the Springfield Art Guild chose McLean High School’s Kylie Hekking as their $750 scholarship award winner. 

Langley High School’s Eu Hyun Yoon won the Best in Comic American Vision Award for Day Dreams; Langley High School’s Ji Hye Yang won the Best in Painting American Vision Award for The Abstract Place and Me; and Annandale High School’s Kevin Muller won the Best in Drawing American Vision Award for You Will Never Understand. 

All Gold Key winners are entered into the national Scholastic Art Awards competition. Those winners are announced in April. A full list of regional winners, their schools, and titles of their work can be found here. The students’ work will be on display in the Ernst Community Cultural Center until Thursday, Feb. 24.

Other winners from Fairfax City and surrounding areas:
Reggie Hay - Film & Animation Vintage (Certificate of Merit)
Brian Hoeg - Film & Animation Portraits of Art (Silver Key)
Madeline Interdonato - Photography Gia (Certificate of Merit)
Ian Jovanovich - Photography Irony (Silver Key)
Ian Jovanovich - Photography Kevin (Gold Key)
Ian Jovanovich - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio (Gold Key)
Naeun Kang - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio (Gold Key)
Naeun Kang - Sculpture Deer (Gold Key)
Jane Lee - Sculpture It Could Be You (Gold Key)
Jennifer Lee - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio (Silver Key)
Danielle Moskowitz - Photography Through The Glass (Certificate of Merit)
Jinsu Park - Drawing Self-Portrait (Certificate of Merit)
Sejin Park - Mixed Media Pressure (Silver Key)
Kristina Rathjen - Film & Animation Beached In (Silver Key)
Alexander Steigerwald - Photography Commute (Silver Key)
Alexander Steigerwald - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio (Silver Key)
Alexander Steigerwald - Digital Art Self Portrait (Certificate of Merit)
Monica Zinn - Film & Animation Perfection (Gold Key)
Frost Middle School
Molly Helmer - Drawing vision of peace (Gold Key)

Deborah Kang - Drawing Flood of Addiction (Gold Key)
SuhBin Ko - Mixed Media Project Runaway (Silver Key)
Lanier Middle School
Amy Ahn - Painting Life Captured in a Picture (Silver Key)
Erin Barone - Sculpture Childhood Moments (Silver Key)
Eric Carlson - Mixed Media Peer Pressure (Certificate of Merit)
Eric Carlson - Sculpture The Serpent in the Crib (Certificate of Merit)
Kyla Collette - Sculpture The Early Bird (Gold Key)
Audra Garcia - Digital Art Vanity the Breaker (Certificate of Merit)
Ho Jung (Melody) Kim - Drawing The Sprout of Peace (Gold Key)
Emma Kornegay - Drawing The Words That Never Esc (Certificate of Merit)
Mary Camille Mendoza - Drawing Careless Inuition (Certificate of Merit)
Phillip Wilkowske - Film & Animation Irony (Certificate of Merit)
Robinson Secondary
Mariya Andreyeva - Photography Fire Escape (Silver Key)
Eric Babbit - Sculpture Break Dance (Silver Key)
Thomas Bayliss - Digital Art Bassalisk (Gold Key)
Rachel Cali - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio (Gold Key)
Rachel Cali - Photography Pins and Flowers in Orange (Certificate of Merit)
Rachel Cho - Drawing The Zebra (Certificate of Merit)
Garcia Mayra Dalance - Jewelry Bite me! (Gold Key)
Xuantran Dao - Drawing I Killed The Wolf (Gold Key)
Xuantran Dao - Painting The Boy Who Cried Wolf, (Certificate of Merit)
Zackary Douglass - Ceramics & Glass Mask Pot (Silver Key)
Aaron Estis - Sculpture little amazon head (Certificate of Merit)
Dylan Hoang - Drawing Chinese Take-Out (Gold Key)
Connor Hoene - Drawing Prophetic (Certificate of Merit)
MinYoung Hong SK Photography HeeSoo (Silver Key)
Christopher Kasbarian - Drawing Dream Stage 4 (Gold Key)
Christopher Kasbarian - Drawing Enlightment Era (Silver Key)
Christopher Kasbarian - Drawing Space Dementia (Certificate of Merit)
Paul Kim - Sculpture Prancing (Gold Key)
Allison Lee - Painting Snow Cat (Gold Key)
Casey Lohrmann - Drawing ME in the Art Room (Silver Key)
Genamarie McCant - Photography Clap (Gold Key)
Abel Mejia - Drawing The REAL Me (Certificate of Merit)
Genevieve Munch - Comic Art Making New Friends (Certificate of Merit)
Erin Pracht - Fashion Duct tape and Bubble Dres (Gold Key)
Ryan Schrader - Mixed Media Risk (Certificate of Merit)
Anna Waldrop - Drawing Me: Outside the Box (Gold Key)
Ethan Whitecotton - Digital Art Snow Flower (Certificate of Merit)
Woodson High School
Eleni Antzoulatos - Sculpture Metal Mythology Huddleston (Certificate of Merit)

Cecilia Breazile - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio Matricardi-Burke (Gold Key)
Will Cameron - Photography Footwear Dixon (Silver Key)
Yoojin Hong - Painting Kaleidoscope Matricardi-Burke (Gold Key)
Christa Hoskins - Comic Art Everything is Better With aHuddleston (Certificate of
Merit)
Justin Hsu - Film & Animation Rain Head (Gold Key)
Zoe Jarvis - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio Matricardi (Gold Key)
Zoe Jarvis - Drawing Holding Matricardi-Burke (Gold Key)
Alexander Kolls - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio Matricardi (Certificate of Merit)
Alexander Kolls - Digital Art Untitled- Crow and Eyes Matricardi-Burke (Gold Key)
Alexander Kolls - Digital Art Untitled-reflections Dixon (Certificate of Merit)
Jessica Lee - Mixed Media Television Matricardi-Burke (Certificate of Merit)
Alaina Lester - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio Matricardi (Silver Key)
Ada McFarlane - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio Matricardi (Certificate of Merit)
Rebecca Meeker - Photography Crystal Dixon (Gold Key)
Christopher Morgan - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio Matricardi-Burke (Silver Key)
Tariq Omar - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio Matricardi (Silver Key)
Rachel June Park - Mixed Media Untitled 6 Self Portraits Matricardi-Burke (Gold
Key)
Emily Peck - Photography Untitled Dixon (Gold Key)
Stephen Poppe - Photography Clock Dixon (Gold Key)
Stephen Poppe - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio Dixon (Silver Key)
Montapon Sawettanan - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio Matricardi (Gold Key)
Samuel Sterling - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio Matricardi (Gold Key)
Rachel Warren - Mixed Media Finger Fries Huddleston (Certificate of Merit)
Byron Whitehead - Photo Portfolio Photo Portfolio Matricardi-Burke (Gold Key)
Byron Whitehead - Photography Untitled Matricardi-Burke (Silver Key)
Alan Wong - Film & Animation Birdy's Quest Head (Gold Key)
Ruiying Yang - Digital Art Forgotten Fairy Tales Head (Certificate of Merit)
Christian Yong - Art Portfolio Art Portfolio Matricardi-Burke (Silver Key)
Christian Yong - Mixed Media In Her Tube Matricardi-Burke (Gold Key)