The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards encourages and influences young artists to further their creative minds and produce bold ideas. Students may receive a number of awards including a Gold or Silver Key award or honorable mentions. Art entries are selected by a group of professional artists who base their decisions on three core values: originality, skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Eight winners from Walpole High School were invited to attend. Gold and Silver Key winners from WHS are seniors Kristyn Dentremont, Sophia Kaselis, Anne Cameron, sophomore Sakeena Abbasi and junior Edmond Fitzgerald. Additionally students given honorable mention awards are sophomore Sophie Murray, freshman Rebecca Chen and once again Abasi. 

Abbassi, Gold Key winner, created a sculpture titled “Nuts and Bolts” by using a rigid medium in order to create a balance of softness and rigidness within her sculpture. 

“Overall, the sculpture portrays a balance of strength and beauty in its appearance,” Abbassi said.  

“Intuitive” is the title of Gold Key winner, Kaselis’ mixed media piece. The ensemble of this canvas was made appealing to the eye through texture and layers. Additionally, this canvas tells a story about Kaselis’ own life by representing the progression she has completed through her two AP art classes through her changing artistic eye. 

“I wanted to capture how distracting and complicated the ceiling is visually but also how it is just a bunch of simple basic engineering of wires and air conditioning vents that look chaotic,” Kaselis stated. 

Dentremont won a Gold Key award for a painting she created on a stretched out canvas representing a bird. She used three different mediums– acrylic paint, gesso and sharpie markers along with abstract visual elements to create her piece. 

“I was initially inspired by Mr. Kim, the teacher whose class I did this piece for, because his teaching has helped me redefine how I think about and make art,” Dentremont said. “Unlike my standard observational pieces, this piece envelops how I am less disciplined in my art-making and instead more inspired and daring.”

Cameron, Silver Key winner, created a canvas piece with multiple layered mediums and colors. Cameron experimented with her piece to see the interaction of varying color compliments and the addition of other details in order to increase sophistication and create a general cohesion throughout the piece. Cameron favors contemporary art and therefore created this piece as something that does not necessarily follow “art standards” and deviates from traditional art. 

There are a number of celebration ceremonies and exhibitions in each region for the winners of the Scholastic Art and Writing Award. On March 18, the Massachusetts Scholastic Art and Writing Award ceremony will be held at the Cohen Auditorium on the Tufts Medford Campus to recognize them.