The new year brought a saucerful of awards for J-town’s art department after participating  in this year’s Scholastic Awards. Although falling short of last year’s accomplishments, J-town still managed to bring home twenty-one awards consisting of nine Gold Keys, five Silver Keys, and seven Honorable Mentions  in a diverse spectrum of categories. In addition to an awards ceremony held at Gheens Auditorium on February 11, the Gold-winning work also took part in a gallery opening  from February 5-26 at the Kentucky Center of Art and Craft. Following the gallery display, the work of Gold Key students will be sent to New York for national judging in March . Seniors Sierra Jeffries and Lara Kinne also recieved a Gold Key award for their art portfolios. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

Gold Key winners:
Amber Cox, Sierra Jeffries, Lara Kinne, Stephanie Stone, and Alix Mattingly.

Silver Key winners:
Madison Shepard, Lee Cosby, Michael Cox, and Jennifer Lewis.

Honorable Mentions:
Abby Borders, Kel Crick, Nick Waldron.

Slide shows of the winners’s work can be viewed, here.

After being popped out as a newborn on March 31st, 1982, Audrey Kawasaki has quite obviously made a name for herself. Hailing from Los Angeles it would be easy to bypass her because there are so many talented artists residing in that location.

Having mastered the skill of applying oil paint to a simple wood panel and making it outstanding, it’s understandable why she is spoken of so highly. Her work is of said to be a mix of Art Nouveau and Japanese manga.

Kawasaki favors painting oddly attractive adolescent girls, risqué most would say. The amount of paint being used scarce, more often than not she allows their limbs to float off into nothing, adding to the eerie essence of the piece.

After studying at Pratt Institution in New York City for two years, she left without even finishing her degree in fine art because she did not agree with their terms of illustrative style. Audrey is one of those people who knows what she likes and knows how she likes to accomplish it. Her ways have been working up to this point in her life, so why stop now?
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Audrey’s Site.
Audrey’s LiveJournal

This story is about a girl who starts off being a very intelligent, creative, and confident. She has nothing on her mind except her family and her studies. But during the course of her school studying, she loses her entire family. Many young girls in today’s world can relate to her in more than one way. This is not a true story, and it’s very fast paced. So try to keep up and enjoy.

She’s not the girl that every one runs up to and starts smiling in her face. She’s not the girl whose name comes up in everyone’s conversation. She’s the girl that sits off on her own and thinks about what she wants to do with her life. She’s the girl who wants to become so much more than the person who is always suspended or the girl who sleeps around with everyone. Many people may think she’s a nobody or just the school’s flunky. But to her family and friends, she is so much more than that. To them she is a strong-minded girl with so much potential.
There’s this guy that she likes. But he won’t give her the time of day. Why, you ask? Is it because she respects herself too much to get in bed with him? Is it because she won’t fight every girl that claims to be his “other boo?” Is it the fact the she walks around with her head held high because she knows she is somebody? The answer to some of these questions may be a yes.

She wants so much more with her life. The only thing she needs to do is succeed in school. Many others try to pull her down because they think she thinks way too highly of herself. But she has too much self esteem to let them beat her down. Everyday she’s faced with life threatening challenges. But that won’t stop her either.  That is until her whole world came crashing down on her.

Daddy dies… she sheds a few tears and gets back on her grind. Because she knows that there isn’t another man that will take care of her. Dang, her mama just get locked in jail for life…where she going now…? Foster care is the first thing she thinks of. That means being separated from her other sisters and brothers. She fights and fights to try to get out of going but they eventually get her. And while she’s in foster care she has to deal with more people bringing her down. After awhile she gives up. “I guess I’m through!” she yells as she takes all of the contents in her backpack and throws them out the window. She quits school and runs away from the foster care house.

Almost a year passes her by and she still has not returned to school. She meets a man that promises to take care of her better than any other person ever has. And the first thing that comes across her mind is her father. I have a new dad, she thinks as she lets this strange man help her get back on her feet. He buys her clothes and shoes; he even lets her move into his house. A couple of months go by and things have never been better. At least that’s what she thinks.

Then things start to change. He makes her cook and clean. And whenever she doesn’t do something the right way, he  promises to punish her. Sometimes she tries very hard and it still seems to be wrong, and one night she messes up big time.

“That’s it. I let you mess up one time too many times!” he yells.
The man grabs her by her arms and that night he did her the way no one has ever done her. She grabbed as much as she could that night and ran away from yet another nightmare. She cried and cried until she couldn’t cry any more.

I need to get back in school. I’ve come to realize that I am the only one that will take care of me. And maybe I can get my sisters and brother back, she says to herself as she starts to walk towards her future. She gets back in school and finds out that it is going to be a lot harder to get back in the action of what she used to do before her world was turned upside down. “Man I don’t think I can do this.” She says as she looks at her book. Once again she gets discouraged and runs out of class.

She runs all the way to the gravesite and stares at her father’s tombstone. “Daddy, please help me get through this. Everything changed once you left us. I’ve been through so much in this past year. I’m sure you know  the family got separated, but Daddy, I’m trying to get us back together. I just need some guidance. Please,” she cries through her tears as she feels an electric current run through her body as the wind blows. She leaves the graveyard knowing that she has to get her life back together. Today is the day that she will get another shot at living her life on the right path and not mess anything up. From this day on she promises herself not to let anyone or anything else come in the way of her life, and her family.

The waves crash onto the perfectly white sandy shore

No one to be seen as far as the eye can tell,

Just you and the ocean that seems to never end.

The beauty makes all thoughts sink to the back of your mind.

After all, how could you care about anything

With something so magical right in front of your eyes.

As you close your eyes, you drift away into your imagination,

Pretending you are a mermaid seeing land for the first time.

This place seems so surreal, so amazing, so…huge

The high tide brings the water up just high enough to tickle your toes.

Realizing mermaids don’t have toes, or feet for that matter,

You awake from your imagination.

Opening your eyes to see two figures running along the beach

You wish your parents were there to share this beautiful sunset with you,

But then you remember the “gruesome” fight

And that you ran away to the place where they would never find you

The figures slowly turn into two people franticly searching.

As the figures turn into the shapes of your parents

A precious thought comes to your mind,

A parent’s love is strong, and never fades no matter what!

Although not a national contest like the Scholastic awards, the All-State Art Competition is still generally very competitive and offers quite a few cash scholarships for our students. Each category (painting, drawing, etc.) is awarded one 1st. 2nd, and 3rd place as well as honorable mentions given out at the judge’s discretion. With so few awards this contest is pretty tough, given the caliber of the competion.

Here are the winners of the 2009 competition:

1st Place Ceramics: Brittany Ellis
1st Place Painting: Amber Cox
1st Place Printmaking: Sierra Jeffires
2nd Place Drawing: Tyray Daniels
2nd Place Textiles: Amber Cox
3rd Place Textiles: Sierra Jeffires
Honorable Mention Sculpture: Karen Chism

All first place winners will move on to the state-wide competition where they will compete for scholarship money and other awards. Congratutations to everyone.  Great job!