High school artists take home awards

High school artists from Union, Pendleton, Joseph take home top awards

Feb. 25, 2019 LA GRANDE, Ore. –  The Eastern Oregon Regional High School Art Exhibition, featuring over 300 works by students from 14 regional high schools and home schoolers opened Feb. 22 in the Nightingale Gallery at Eastern Oregon University. 

Nathan Lowe, Dean of EOU’s College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, gave a brief welcome to visitors and awards were presented by Gallery Director Cory Peeke. 

“The EOU Art Department and Nightingale Gallery congratulate the award-winners from this year’s exhibition and recognize the hardworking educators who make it all possible,” Peeke said.

Awards were presented for exemplary work by students in grades 9 through 12. All Best of Show winners received an award certificate, a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card and a sketchbook from the EOU Art Department, as well as an EOU T-shirt and water bottle compliments of the Office of Admissions. Honorable Mention recipients received an award certificate.

 

Best of Show 12th Grade:

Ruby Ferguson (Union High) for her mixed media mask sculpture “Alpaca”

Best of Show 11th Grade:    

Alysha de Martinez (Pendleton High) for her acrylic painting “Casita de Maya”

Best of Show 10th Grade:    

Jacob Gross (Joseph Charter School) for his mixed media painting “Dusk to Dawn”

Best of Show 9th Grade:

Saira Davis (Union High) for her mixed media mask sculpture “The Beast”

 

Honorable Mentions:

Baker City

Koedi Birmingham, 12th grade, for her ceramic piece “Rueben Blorp”

Sophie Daffer, 9th grade, for her glass sculpture “Picking Up the Pieces”   

Burns

Miranda Howes, 12th grade, for her charcoal drawing “Solemnity”

Burnt River

Anna Kim, 10th grade, for her acrylic painting “Dark Purple Landscape”

Cove

Hannah Alldredge, 10th grade, for her photograph “Entangled Egg”

Rachel Baird, 9th grade, for her photograph “Melting Away”

Enterprise

Arian Latta, 10th grade, for her mixed media painting “9 Brains 3 Hearts”

La Grande

Owen Kreutz, 12th grade, for his graphite drawing “Abby Crews”

Lian Moy, 11th grade, for his acrylic painting “My Bro”

Tulea Setser, 11th grade (home school), for her acrylic painting “Nana”

Mcloughlin (Milton-Freewater)

Sierra Breeding, 11th grade, for her mixed media work “Interpretation of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring”

Idaly Ferrel, 11th grade, for her mixed media work “Interpretation of Rachel Ruysch’s Basket of Flowers”

Pendleton

Molly Magill, 9th grade, for her mixed media and papier-mâché sculpture “Sweet Tooth”

Britney Mendel, 12th grade, for mixed media painting “Opulent”

Powder Valley

Dallon Arvidson, 9th grade, for his mixed media painting “Drawin’”

Autumn Davis, 11th grade, for her mixed media sculpture “Lion’s Mane’”

Rylee Richman, 12th grade, for her untitled mixed media painting

Viri Rodriguez, 9th grade, for her mixed sculpture “Fungi Tea-Cup”   

Shelby Sieckman, 12th grade, for her untitled mixed media sculpture

Prairie City

Brett Copenhaver, 12th grade, for his acrylic painting “Swooping Eagle”

Union

Hannah Bello, 11th grade, for two pieces, her mixed media mask sculpture “The Panther” and her graphite drawing “Highway 203”

Hunter Coon, 11th grade, for his mixed media mask sculpture “Squid”

Ruby Ferguson, 12th grade, for her acrylic painting “San Francisco”

Riley Later, 10th grade, for her reduction print “I Sea”

Israel O’Reilly, 10th grade, for his untitled linoleum block

 

Four art centers also presented special awards to student artists from their areas.

 

La Grande Arts Commission

Best of Show: Kennedy Kruse (home school) for her acrylic painting “Ice and Frost.”

Honorable Mention: Annabella Fager (La Grande High School) for her untitled watercolor painting.

Winners were selected by local artist and La Grande Arts Commissioner Jeremy Clark, who presented the awards alongside Commission Chairperson Evna Stacey. The Best of Show award comes with a certificate and $100, and the Honorable Mention receives a certificate and $50.

 

Art Center East

Union County Rising Young Artist: Anna Kreutz, a 9th grader from La Grande High School, for her gouache painting “Three Sisters.”

The award comes with a $50 gift certificate which can be used toward any class at ACE in 2019. Winners were selected and presented by Jennifer Durr, ACE Program Assistant and EOU art alumna.

 

Crossroads Carnegie Art Center

Outstanding Baker City High School Young Artist: Morgan Stone for her ink drawing “Meme Queen”

Outstanding Baker County School Young Artist: Nuria Pons (Burnt River High School) for her graphite drawing “Lady Bug.”

Award winners were selected by local artist and EOU Art Professor Emeritus, Tom Dimond and presented by Dimond and Crossroads Executive Director Ginger Savage. Each winner received $50 and an award certificate.

 

Pendleton Center for the Arts

Best of Pendleton: Emily Long for her acrylic painting “Peeda Painting”

Presented in conjunction with Pendleton Art & Frame,The Pendleton Center for the Arts/Pendleton Art & Frame award was selected and presented by EOU Art professor Cory Peeke on behalf of PCA’s Executive Director Roberta Lavadour who was unable to attend the event. Each award came with a check for $100

 

“On behalf of the EOU Art Department and the Nightingale Gallery I would like to congratulate the winners and all the students with work on view,” Peeke said. “And I would also like to congratulate the art teachers who go above and beyond to help students create works of such a high caliber.”

 

Those area teachers include:

Kristen Anderson and Jill Nelson, Baker City High School

Ben Holtby, Burns High School

Laurie Hueckman, Burnt River High School

Eric Gustavson,Cove High School

Dianne Pfel, Enterprise & Wallowa High Schools

J.J. Collier, Grant Union High School

Jennifer Hawkins-Connolly, Joseph Charter School

Mike Schireman, La Grande High School

Amanda Welch, La Grande Home School

Marianne Smith, McLoughlin High School (Milton-Freewater)

Alice Thomas, Pendleton High School

Jessie Street, Powder Valley High School

Emily Kokesh, Prairie City High School

Jaime Gustavson, Union High School

 

The 2019 Eastern Oregon Regional High School Exhibition runs through March 15.

You can check out the winning artists’ works on the Nightingale Gallery’sInstagram andFacebook feeds. The Nightingale Gallery is located in Loso Hall on the campus of Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Ore. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

To request images of artwork for publication please contact Gallery Director Cory Peeke at cpeeke@eou.edu.