Young artists show their stuff

Ninth-grader Manuel Estrada plans to take an art class or two after seeing what Smith-Cotton High School had to offer at this year’s art show.

“I think I’d like to take a class about painting,” he said. “I like to draw people. I just feel more calm when I draw. You get more calm, and it helps you think.”

Art students displayed more than 600 pieces of artwork in the gym all day Thursday as part of the annual art show.

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“We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response to the submissions of art in the show,” Smith-Cotton art teacher Mike Shukers said. “We had a wide range of subject matter. Everything from abstraction to realism, and possibly the kitchen sink.”

The categories were broken into black-and-white drawings, color drawings, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media, and paintings.

Ovidio Trejo, who submitted a pencil drawn portrait of Al Pacino from the movie “Scar Face,” said he still needs to learn.

“I like pencil, but there’s a lot of stuff I want to work on,” Trejo, a sophomore, said. “I want to work on my shading and do more realism. I do a lot of cartoons, but I need more realism.”

Jacque Kesterson, a senior, also did a portrait in graphite.

“I like doing portraits of people, and I picked Michael Jackson because I knew people would look at it and know who he is,” Kesterson said. “And his older music really inspires me.”

Art teacher Suzanne Wesner was impressed with what her students had to offer for the show.

“It seems like we’ve used more pieces than usual. It’s a much larger show than we’ve had in the past,” Wesner said. “One thing we’ve noticed is that we’re getting to showcase kids that might not be involved in other activities at school. We’re really pleased to showcase their work as is.”
Wesner wasn’t the only person surprised by the size of the show.

“There’s a lot of people who have more than two or three art pieces up and they’re really nice,” said senior Cecilia Sotelo. “I think they should give a scholarship to all those people because they have a lot of talent.”

Gabriel Vivario was another one who didn’t think the art show was going to be as big as it was.

“I got a couple of drawings in here,” the sophomore said. “But next year I’m going to cover up the wall.”

Meanwhile, senior Michael Morey was tinkering with his sculpture, a ceramic fountain that won the prize for best in show for sculpture.

“To do this, you need a lot of patience,” Morey said. “Patience comes with any kind of artwork.”