Additional Art Show Winners Reported

As we continue to celebrate talent from the 75th Annual Montana Seed Show held last month, Harlem High School Art Teacher, Mary-Kate Nienhuis-French shared the names of several artists who walked away as winners. The students' art was organized and presented at the Seed Show by the Harlem High School Art Club with Nienhuis-French as their advisor.

The big winner was Harlem High School freshman, Naeleigh Main, who scored status as Best of Show overall for the Junior High/High School Division. For her talent, she won a rosette and $100.

According to Art Show Superintendent for the Seed Show, Taylor Faulkinberry-Richardson, art was judged on four criteria: artist's theme, planning, craftsmanship, and creativity.

Other Harlem area winners as reported by Nienhuis-French included Taylor Healy, a junior who received a blue and a red ribbon for her metal art. Her teacher is Mr. Jon Baker.

In the Collage/Paper Painting category, Hayden Main and Makaela Doney won first place, Roman Kinsey-Martin and Kianna Mount earned second, and Romeo Main and Nicole Turnsplenty secured third.

Another category, Self Portraits produced talent by Romeo Main, Treyton Mount, and Nicole Turnsplenty. All three captured blue ribbons for their interpretations. Madison Barr and Autumn Doney received red ribbons, and Lillian Cochran and Dana Buckles collected white.

Landscapes done in watercolor using the Zentangle style saw eight winners. In first place were Naeleigh Main and Elleonna Azure. Taking second were Kianna Mount, Tearia Sunchild, and Emma Klingaman, while Aamari Doney, Jayvon Big Knife, and Madison Mount emerged in third.

Zentangle art is often used as a form of mindfulness meditation, a process which allows the artist to focus on each stroke rather than to worry about the result. Typically non-representational and unplanned, the lines and shapes that unintentionally emerge are called tangles. Created with combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves, and orbs, these simple shapes are the "elemental strokes" in all Zentangle art.

To create art for the next category, Colored Pencil Shoe Mashups, Nienhuis-French invited her students to become modern-day pop artists. She proposed that her students "create an original piece of artwork that combines a contemporary cultural icon-a shoe-with a famous work of art." This scenario offered the opportunity to mix art history with individual style and perspective.

Upon locating a chosen artwork and researching who created it, in what time, and in what style, students considered the main subjects of the work and comingled those with a shoe. This could be the student's own shoe, a friend's, or even a classic Converse or Air Jordan.

After selecting their footwear, students took a photo from the side. "This shouldn't just be a picture of a shoe on top of a painting," Nienhuis-French told her students. "Think about how you can make it look like a cohesive artwork. Will the shoe be in the foreground? Will it look like it's part of the painting? Pay attention to how the colors and textures can blend together."

Some of the main themes she wanted her artists to consider were the new versus the old/classical, utility versus aesthetics, and contrast versus juxtaposition. "Focus on how you can take two seemingly unrelated things and make them 'flow' and work together harmoniously," Nienhuis-French invited.

An artist statement of 100-150 words accompanied each piece of artwork. In these statements, students not only explained why they chose the specific shoe and featured artwork but also identified the message they had attempted to communicate.

The top winners in this category were two juniors: Lillian Cochran and Autumn Doney. Two freshmen: Jazzy Snell and Naeleigh Main followed that pair, and a trio found themselves in third place: Jayvon Big Knife, Nicole Turnsplenty, and Trinity Hawley.

The final category, Charcoal/Colored Pencil "Color Pop" Drawings, saw seven artists emerge as victorious. Front runners were Naeleigh Main, Selena Weigand, and Romeo Main. Runners-up were Treyton Mount and Jaspen Camel, with Elleonna Azure and Selena Weigand accepting white ribbons.

Regarding her reaction to the Art Show's overall outcome, Faulkinberry-Richardson stated that it was a success. "My only real concern is that the Seed Show was scheduled over the same weekend as the Great Western Art Show in Great Falls. That event pulled some artists away from ours. We did have some local artists or those who had ties to the school as alumni that still participated, but that conflict did deplete participation here," she stated.

As for her part, Nienhuis-French hopes to continue to inspire youth and to celebrate their creativity.