Artfields JR. Past Winners

Change begins with an individual. As we as a society expand, more of our natural resources are being exploited in the face of industrialization. Trees are responsible for providing habitat for various animals, preventing erosion, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and moderating the climate, but their importance is often overlooked. It is estimated that every second, one and a half acres of forest is cut down. In my piece, I used recycled wood to bring attention to this growing issue. I strategically lit the world map to highlight countries with extreme deforestation. Each carving in front of the map represents one hundred million people that choose to ignore the problem of deforestation and remain stagnant. The more evolved human in the center represents the individual choice to face the issue directly and work towards a change. At the current rate of deforestation, there will be no rainforests in just 100 years. Will you make a stand, or respond like the masses?

My inspiration behind this artwork is my best friend Maliyah. She has been behind me through thick and thin. I chose this angle of this artwork the way I did to show both pain and strength. Maliyah has been through a lot at home and still pushes through it all with a smile on her face. Maliyah helped me and laughed with me for about 4 years now and I can't wait for many more to come.

Kids do the weirdest things. They also make you realize they might be smarter than you think. My job is to help out the smaller kids with their reading, writing, and to help out the teachers once and a while. While my time as a helper has been short I've learned so much from them. I've learned to appreciate what I have now and what I had. Today, I walked in the classroom and the children were on the floor watching a movie, fully energized, and excited for us to show up. While they might have the obvious luxury of not having sleep deprivation from work, carelessness, and innocence, we have the perks of independence and saying restroom instead of "the potty place". We all miss those days and wanted to travel back to a time when we were babies and not have a care in the world again. We didn't appreciate all those naptimes and breaks and now they are gone. Don't make the same mistakes and appreciate things in your life now, be happy, and look on the bright side like these smiling kids.

I based my drawing on a photograph I captured of my jack russell terrier. I used hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling to make him look realistic. Pencil is my favorite medium to work with but I challenged myself with pen for this project. Overall, I was pleased with the final results.

I like to make art because it lets me express myself, it lets me put what I'm thinking of on a medium of my choice. I like using paper, canvas, and video to communicate how I feel. I really just want people to see my work.

This is my dog Dixie. Ever since she was a little puppy, she has loved to chase our used milk jugs around the yard. I wanted to make a painting of her in action chasing a jug like she loves to do so much.

I made a collage of a bowl of Russian eggs, that are from my grandparents house. Then I drew apples with oil pastel and cut them out. My favorite part was painting the plant because painting is really fun.

I like snow, and I was learning about penguins at school. I put a hat and scarf on my penguin because it is chilly when it snows. I had fun making it.

Everyone says "The sky is the limit.", but I just see it as another barrier that I have to break to find my true potential, to reach new heights. I want to be the best I can be at what I love to do. When I started planning for this piece, I wanted to push into a realm of advancement in my art. I wanted to create beyond what I have already produced. My teacher, as she always does, pushed me outside of my comfort zone. She said all artist need a self portrait at some time. So I decided to create my self portrait, but using the stenciling method like Banksy. This took me about two weeks to do all the cutting for the stencils, and because of my prior knowledge in the medium about two hours spray paint. This work of art is my result of my stepping out of my boundaries and hard work.

James Charles is an inspirational Youtuber and artist. I chose to draw James Charles because he is funny and creative in many ways. For my portrait, I used realism because I love the different texture and movement used in the style. I drew this portrait using charcoals and different shades of pencil and chose a purple border for a pop of color. I chose to draw James Charles because he is inspiring, funny, and creative in many ways.

In class we created a sun and a moon face to represent the warm and cool colors. We could paint it however we wanted as long as we had all the colors we talked about in class.