Josh and Vita before the Spotlight Awards Ceremony. Photo by Josh.
By Marcia E. Gawecki
Persistence pays off. At least when it comes to high school art competitions.
For two years now, Vita, a Visual Artist from Idyllwild Arts, submitted photographs to the coveted Music Center of Los Angeles Spotlight Awards, but didn’t make the cut.
This year, however, Vita submitted a mixed media drawing and won an Honorable Mention. She was up against thousands of other art students from 100 other Los Angeles-area high schools.
“Photos are so subjective,” Vita said. “They can be interpreted in so many ways, so I submitted a drawing this year.”
Several of Vita’s paintings and drawings can be seen in the 2012 Spring issue of Parallax student magazine. You can pick up a copy for free at Bowman on campus.
Vita’s mixed media drawing that won the Spotlight Award is long and narrow, and architectural in nature. (Architecture is something Vita admits that she’s interested in). She couldn’t remember the name of the piece, because she only named it for the show.
As part of her winnings, Vita gets $250, and two tickets to the Spotlight Awards Ceremony on Saturday, April 28, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. She brought her boyfriend, Josh, who is also a Visual Artist at the school.
“It looks like a building falling down,” exclaimed Josh.
Vita’s drawing looks like a skewed aerial view of the Los Angeles or New York skyline. How would you ever get that view? You’d have to take a helicopter that dives in between tall skyscrapers.
Vita's award-winning drawing was shown in a student show at Parks earlier this year
Vita said that she used several photographs as inspiration and put them together. The same piece was featured in an earlier art show at Parks Exhibition Center this year.
Before heading to the Spotlight Awards Ceremony, Vita and Josh ate outdoors at a Taiwanese restaurant. Both were dressed up, and Vita insisted that she wasn’t nervous.
“I hope they don’t make me go onstage,” she said.
At the ceremony, the two sat in the balcony, with hundreds of other supporters and well-wishers. In 2009, a caravan of Idyllwild Arts students and teachers took up two rows when Timmy Yu (piano) and Samuel Chan (voice) stole the competition.
Josh said he thought there might have been 5,000 people in the audience. After the music performances and videos, they showed Vita’s drawing on the big screen.
“That was a big moment,” she said, smiling.
Josh couldn’t take pictures because he said it was really dark in there and a flash wouldn’t go far.
“Vita deserves the recognition,” Josh said. “She works really hard.”
Vita mentioned that the other winners in the Visual Art category had shown their mastery of technique.
Spotlight Awards Ceremony was held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion
“In Asia, our teachers really emphasize technique,” Vita said. “But here I’ve learned to use my imagination and creativity more.”
She said the other winners’ images were deserving.
“But Dean would have blown them all out of the water,” Vita exclaimed of her classmate. “Dean doesn’t care about awards. He’s that type of artist who is so good all he wants to do is his art. Awards don’t matter to him.”
What they have in common is their love of perspective. Dean’s image on the April-June Idyllwild Arts Performance Calendar depicts a worm’s eye view (looking up) of an elderly African American woman smiling. Free copies of the calendar are available at Bowman.
"Dean's work would blow them all out of the water!" exclaimed Vita of Dean's painting (shown). "But he doesn't care about awards."
After her Cinderella moment, Vita was back to the studio getting ready for her senior class art show which opens at 6 p.m. tonight, (Friday, May 4)at the Parks Exhibition Center on campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The four other Visual Art students featured in Friday’s show include: Caine, Jimmy, Yoo Jean and Ji.
For more information about events at the Parks Exhibition Center, visit www.idyllwildarts.org or call Mallory Cremin at (951) 659-2171, ext. 2251.
Copyright 2012 Idyllwild Me. All rights reserved.
the attachments to this post:
Vita Dean Painting
Vita Music H Steps
Vita Award Drawing
Vita & Josh Music H
