News : 4 in a row: VSHS Artists bring home another \'3D Best of Show\' award from WaMac

Stephanie Berry and Tiffany Auen shared 3D Best of Show honors at the 2013 WaMaC Art Fair.

Brelynn Beck, 3rd place, printmaking.

Brelynn Beck's print.

Emily Cashman, 3rd place, mixed media drawing; her work was based on a photo she took.

Feet in the water: Emily Cashman took a photo of her feet, and a friends; it inspired this work.

Emma Lippman won first place in decorative & functional ceramics with this Raku work.

Emma Lippman's Raku techniqued used the heat of the kiln to create copper.

Erin Randall won first place in computer graphics for this Vinton Popcorn sign.

Jessica Dickerson earned first place in digital imaging.

Karys Lillie holds her Raku candle-holder

Kathryn Michael's 3rd place pastel/charcoal/crayon drawing project.

Kylie Lane earned secnd place with this 3D mixed media project.

Kyra Blix holds her first-place mixed media drawing.

Olivia Oltrogge with her 3rd place winning jewelry project.

Sarah Siglin earned second place in sculpture with this "Army man" interpretation.

Sarah Siglin holds her second-place winning sculpture.

A red octopus over a woman's head "looked good in my head," said Steph Berry of her winning project.

A close-up of Tiffany Auen's second place decorative ceramic project.

VSHS students examine works by other WaMaC artists.

A photo of the feet of Emily Cashman and a friend in the Cedar River inspired her 3rd place work.

Cake: Melody Sedlacek earned second place in Mixed Media 2D with this project at WAMAC Art Fair.

Emma Lippman with her Raku copper-coated ceramic vase in the VSHS art room.

First place: Emma Lippmann used a modern form of ancient Raku to make this copper-coated vase.

For the fourth year in a row, a Vinton-Shellsburg High School artist has brought home the "Best of Show" in 3D award from the WaMaC West Art Fair.

This year, Stephanie Berry and Tiffany Auen share the award. Stephanie won first place in the Decorative Ceramics category, while Tiffany placed second in that category. Stephanie created a design called "Something's Fishy," showing a person with a red octopus covering her head. Tiffany's depicted a French woman with the Eiffel Tower on her shoulder.

Of the 20 entries from VSHS, 13 received medals, with five artists earning first place awards.

Along with Stephanie, first place winners from VSHS included Kyra Blix, Emma Lippmann, Erin Randall and Jessica Dickerson.

The event, hosted for the last time by Waterloo Columbus, took place at the Center for the Arts along the Cedar River in downtown Waterloo. The projects have been at the Center since Friday, allowing judges the weekend to evaluate them. Students from the eight WaMaC West schools (VS, Benton, Center Point-Urbana, Independence, Clear Creek-Amana, Williamsburg, Marion and Columbus) entered projects in a variety of 2D and 3D categories.

Columbus art teacher Kimberlynn Strever told the crowd that she will miss working with the other teachers of the WaMaC when Columbus changes conferences next year, and wished them luck in the future.

After looking at all of the other entries and voting on a student artists' favorite, the high school artists spent an hour visiting the galleries at the Waterloo Arts Center while teachers discussed a variety of topics related to the contest.

Teachers Chris Juhl and Ann Diedrichsen accompanied the students to the event.

Ms. D, as the students call her, spent some time discussing this year's VSHS projects, and the effort and inspiration behind them.

Raku

Emma Lippmann and Karys Lillie finished first and second in the Decorative and Functional Ceramics category. Emma created a vase; Kylie, a candle holder. Both used the Raku art form, in which the ceramics are removed from the kiln while hot (1,700 degrees F), and placed in a metal container containing flammable material (newspapers). The fire is then smothered; the resulting interaction between carbon and the ceramics creates a cooper on the surface.

Graphic Design & Digital Imaging

Two VS artists earned first place honors for their creativity using computers.

Jessica Dickerson won first in the Digital Imaging, combining her computer and artistic skills to create a silhouette of a woman standing in the rain.

Erin Randall won first place in the Graphic Design category with her design of the logo for Vinton Popcorn. She created that logo for the VS Entrepreneurship class; the logo now appears on packages of popcorn and other signs and promotional materials.

Variety of inspirations

Ms. Diedrichsen spoke of how the students start with a variety of ideas. Emily Cashman's second-place winning Mixed Media Drawing shows two sets of feet; a photo of her feet along with a friends in the shallow waters of the Cedar River inspired this project. Sarah Siglin's second-place sculpture was inspired by the small plastic green "Army men." Her design, however, shows a soldier depicting fear, says Ms. Diedrichsen. The sculpture even includes the curved base familiar to those who grew up playing with those little green soldiers.

Public displays

The setting of the event -- a museum with several art galleries -- is good for young artists, says Ms. Diedrichsen. The students, she said, are eager to share their work with the public.

"The hardest part of this is that each school only gets to choose 20 projects for the Art Fair," she said. "It's hard to tell a student their work has not been selected for WaMac."

Several former VS art students are now pursuing careers in creative fields, using lessons they learned while still in high school.

Share lessons and techniques

One of the benefits of such events, says Ms. Diedrichsen, is the sharing of ideas and techniques.

"We do a lot of reverse-engineering," she said, referring to the way that she and her students look at entries from other schools, trying to figure out how those things were made.

"One of the worst things for artists is to come to a place like this," she said. "Instead of simply enjoying a work of art, we spend our time trying to figure out how the artist made it."

2013 VS place-winners

Below is the complete list of Vinton-Shellsburg artists who placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd at the 2013 WaMaC Art Fair:

First place: Jessica Dickerson, digital imaging; Erin Randall, computer graphics; Stephanie Berry, decorative ceramics; Emma Lippmann, decorative & functional ceramics; Kyra Blix, mixed media drawing.

Second place: Sarah Siglin, sculpture; Karys Lillie, decorative & functional ceramics; Tiffany Auen, decorative ceramics; Kylie Lane, mixed media 3D, Melody Sedlacek,Mixed Media Drawing.

Third place: Brelynn Beck, print-making; Olivia Oltrogge, jewelry/metalsmith; Kathryn Michael, pastel/charcoal/crayon drawing; Emily Cashman, mixed media drawing.

Previous Best of Show winners

Last year, Brinkley Gerber won Best of Show in 3D with her ceramic leopard. Meghan Owens won that honor in 2011, and Dylan Vaughn in 2010. See a story about Brinkley, with links to stories about the other two winners, HERE.