By Laurelle Walsh
Two Liberty Bell High School students have received accolades at the Regional High School Art Show hosted by the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center.
Sophomore Jessica Marker won first place in the three-dimensional category for her sculpture, “Playful Fox.”
Marker, a second-year ceramics student, said she was inspired to create the realistic sculpture of an Arctic marble fox out of her love of exotic animals. After doing library research on the fox, Marker made preliminary sketches for her piece.
She built a newspaper armature for the sculpture, and then modeled clay slabs around the form. The piece, once dry, was fired. Marker then used acrylic paints to give the fox lifelike details such as shiny brown eyes, and mounted it on a wood pedestal, which she also built.
“[Marker’s] piece has personality and is charming,” remarked Liberty Bell art teacher Robin Nelson-Wicks. “It looks like it might wink at the viewer and do something teasing and tricky.”
Senior Dawn Smith won third place in the photography category for her color photograph, “My Life Right Now.”
Smith has been an art student since she was a child, and has always been interested in and loved art, she said.
Her winning photo was created out of two separate images. The first image is of a misty, forested hillside which, using Photoshop, she overlaid with a photo of a stained-glass panel she had made in preschool, achieving the effect of viewing the hillside through a stained-glass window.
Smith said her work with Nelson-Wicks has inspired her to “push myself beyond my skill level, and take my artistic skill further in college and a future career.”
The Regional High School Art Show includes work by high school students throughout North Central Washington, and will be on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum until April 12.
