Merivale High School and John McCrae
Secondary School students
had their chance to shine at the annual Young at Art Awards gala held in the
chambers at Ben Franklin Place
on May 10.
The pair of schools nabbed 19 awards in the 34 different
categories.
“The variety of the work submitted by our school was
something that our art department is proud of,” Irving Osterer, head of the
Merivale arts department, said. “Of our 34 works, eight were deemed exemplary
by the judges.”
Eilish MacDonald, a Grade 11 student who won the Ottawa
Mixed Media Artists Award for her collograph (simple form of printing using
found materials that are arranged in a collage form), “In the Beginning”, said
the contest encouraged her.
“I was thinking about getting into graphic design and this
shows me that there is an artistic community and that’s exciting,” she said.
Nancy Jones, a Grade 12 student at Merivale who took home
two awards for her digital image “Bike,” said that while she plans to go to
University for sciences, she will never give up her camera.
“I am the type of person who take pictures of the pavement
while you’re driving,” Jones said. “We were coming back from London and my mom said the clicking was
driving her crazy.”
Jones said the inspiration for “Bike” came from her
grandmother’s bike laying around.
“I decided to take a photo of something old and use
Photoshop to make it look like a Polaroid. I saw my grandmother’s bike and I
went, ‘hey that’s old.’”
Jones said that she had never seen a photo of just the back
of the bike and thought the perspective might look interesting.
Apparently the jury agreed.
The Young at Art competition first started in 1996 in the
west end and has been city wide for the last six years.
Youth aged 12 to 19 are able to submit their work for
display at municipal galleries across the city.
Each section of the city has a jury of volunteer from a
variety of backgrounds and age groups.
For Tamara Morill, who won the Young at Art Founder’s Award,
the New Art Festival Award and the Best of Painting-Senior Award for her
acrylic on canvas, “Hidden Abuse,” choosing her work was agony.
“I went crazy for a couple of weeks looking at all my work
trying to find the best, but I ultimately settled on that one because I felt it
was my strongest work,” the John McCrae Secondary School student said.
Morill, who is Grade 12 is pondering a degree in
architecture from Carleton University or Sciences from the University of Ottawa.
“No matter what I do, I will always keep doing art, it is my
hobby,” she said.
The work will be on exhibition at the Atrium and
Centrepointe Theatre Galleries until May 24.
There will be two more awards ceremonies. The next one will
be at the Shenkman Arts Centre on May 12 at 7:30 p.m. and the last one will be
held at the John G. Mlacak Centre in Kanata
at 7:30 p.m.
jennifer.mcintosh@metroland.com
Ottawa This Week-Nepean