Art for All Seasons highlights students
Friday's night's First Friday Art Walk in downtown Scranton served as the kickoff to this year's "Artist of the Month: Art for All Seasons Student Exhibit," a joint project between The Times-Tribune and Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit.
Several waves of kids and adults passed through the lobby of The Scranton Times Building to check out the exhibit, which features works by 83 students from 16 area schools in a variety of mediums.
Each fall, The Times-Tribune and NEIU invite students from all high schools in the newspaper's coverage area to submit color artwork depicting a particular season. Twelve winners are selected overall, with all getting their artwork featured on the monthly calendar published in The Sunday Times' Lifestyles section.
Among the winners there Friday were sisters Emily and Olivia Funk of Western Wayne High School, a perennial powerhouse in the contest.
Emily's piece, "Indian Corn," is an almost-photographic representation of maize, while Olivia's "Daybreak" shows a flock of geese in a wintertime landscape.
"It took me a really long time to do it," said Olivia, a junior, of her piece.
Western Wayne art teacher Justin Hayden said he strives every year to get his students to "create something out of the box" for Artist of the Month.
"Each year, I push the bar higher and higher," he said.
Brendan Lamb, a sophomore at Susquehanna Community High School, was there with his parents to see his winning entry, "Grey Winter," featuring a haunting portrait of a wolf.
"This year, the idea for the wolf just kind of sparked for me," Brendan said.
Alicia Kohut, a senior at Abington Heights High School, was pleasantly surprised to see her robin's egg piece among the 12 winners.
"Oh my God, they're all amazing. So good," she said of the other works on display.
Other winners on hand included Scranton High School junior Ray Nearhood, whose "Over Easy" shows a guy lounging next to an egg frying on a manhole cover in the summer heat, and Anna Klingler, a freshman at Riverside Junior/Senior High School, whose "Summertime Snack" is a rendering of a vegetable tray.
"Art for All Seasons" will remain on display through April.