On Jan. 10 at Jefferson High School, the national PTSA hosted Reflections, their yearly award ceremony for student arts. Reflections allows for students to submit pieces of literature, dance choreography, film production, musical compositions, or visual arts, competing to earn renown for their work. Reflections goal is “to encourage students to explore their talents and express themselves,” according to the official website. The organization believes it contributes to the students success overall. Every year there comes a new theme for the art to be based around. This year’s theme was “Let Your Imagination Fly.”
Four Steinbrenner students were awarded this year under photography, film production, and musical composition. Tygh Osborne was the first Steinbrenner student ever to submit work under musical composition, placing second. In photography, Kelly Thal placed 2nd, and Sarah Houssain placed 3rd. For film production, Hannah Makholm placed 3rd.
These students are all involved in an art class. One of their projects was to create a piece worth submitting into this year’s reflections, some later decided to submit their piece to be judged.
Thal has taken 2D Art and is currently enrolled in Digital Art Imaging 1. Thal submitted a picture of a dandelion with dew drops on it that she had taken while in Geiranger, Norway. She spotted it in a patch of wildflowers next to a rushing river. Along with their submission they had to have an artist statement about how their piece relates to the theme.
“I thought it was really beautiful,” said Thal. “I see the dandelion as a symbol of magic, and fantasy. And seeing the dandelion with the dew drops reminded me of Silvermist from Disney’s ‘Tinkerbell’. This image allows for the viewer to piece in what they think of the dandelion, or even what happened to create such a stunning display of nature’s capabilities.”
Houssain’s piece was a colorful bubble on cracked asphalt. She also shared her reasoning behind how her piece was related to the theme.
“A bubble represents your imagination and the right before a bubble pops that’s when it is most colorful, so I talked about how like your imagination shows through the color of it and I just wanted to juxtapose it with a hard background, the asphalt,” said Houssain.
Many of this year’s award winners and participants do plan on submitting again next year and have had a positive experience. Some have even already begun to plan around next year’s theme, ‘What Is Your Story.”
Ariel Cox // Centerspread Editor
