CHS students honored for art & writing excellence
By Guest
Scholastic award winners (l-r) Jaden Lam, Hannah Isaac, Mekhala Costello and Camila Cutter
By Darcie Fisher
The Canton High School Visual Arts Department is pleased to announce that six students have been recognized with Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the longest running awards competition in the country for creative teens.
In the art categories, Hannah Isaac was recognized for two different submissions, earning a Silver Key for her digital art piece titled “Time After Time” and an honorable mention for another digital submission, “At the Crossroads; Still.”
Isaac said she painted the subject in “Time After Time” to purposely have a neutral expression on her face, while her body language and features are being contorted. “This piece is inspired by the power time and constant stress hold over us,” she said. “I was inspired by the manifestation of thoughts and feelings through how our body language responds to them.”
Classmate Mekhala Costello also received a Silver Key for her photograph titled “Stand Tall,” which she took outside London’s Buckingham Palace as royal guards and other military personnel were training. “They were lined up, practicing commands in unison, with higher-ranking guards pacing the aisles, eyes locked on the positions and mannerisms of the trainees,” said Costello. “I lined myself up in between the rows of guards and waited for the commanders to pass by. Luckily, they passed by at the same time and I was able to get a photo of the intense stares and emotions of both the guards and commanders.”
Fellow senior Dianna Peters was also recognized for her photography, earning an honorable mention for “The Bloodline Melody,” a photo she took that features a banjo and bagpipes played by her father and grandfather.
In the writing categories, senior Jaden Lam was awarded a Silver Key for a poem titled “Cantonese,” which illustrates the challenges that come with learning a second language, especially one with “completely different characters, tones, and grammatical rules.”
Lam said it was an honor to be recognized with a Scholastic Writing award, noting, “I am thankful for everyone who enjoyed my piece because its topic is very personal to me. It’s a window into my life and reaches deep down into my roots and challenges.”
Also recognized for their writing were junior Camila Cutter, who earned an honorable mention for “Asnica,” an essay reflecting on her multiracial identity and the experience of having to select “other” on her first job application, and senior Callie Robinson, who received an honorable mention for her poem “The Thorns of Grief.”
“I find that a lot of media I read or watch have plot lines that are not satisfying to me,” said Robinson, “and when I was younger, I found a remedy for that — writing. My inspiration was my own ideal story, something that satisfied the part of me that other stories could not.”
“On behalf of the Visual Arts Department staff, I would like to congratulate our students who have received Scholastic Art and Writing Awards this year,” said CHS Visual Arts Coordinator Patricia Palmer. “These students’ achievements can be attributed to the originality, technical skill, and personal vision and voice that are central to their work. This highly competitive awards program is the oldest in the nation, and as such, receiving this recognition is a great honor.”
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=123756
Posted by 
