The Maude Kerns Art Center presents the seventeenth annual “Fast Forward: The Mayor’s Teen Art Show,” opening on Friday, September 9, and on view through Friday, September 30. The Art Center gratefully acknowledges Comcast in its eleventh year as the Title Sponsor for the “Mayor’s Teen Art Show.”
The Reception and Awards Ceremony take place on Friday, September 9, from 6 – 8 pm. At this time Mayor Kitty Piercy announces the Mayor’s Choice Award winner. In addition teen artists will be honored with the Comcast Choice Award, the Maude Kerns Art Center Award, and a number of Artist Recognition awards including Oregon Art Supply Gift Certificates. This will be Kitty Piercy’s last year as Mayor of Eugene selecting the Mayor’s Choice Award winner for “Fast Forward: The Mayor’s Teen Art Show.”
“The Mayor’s Teen Art Show” features the work of 45 teen artists from 12 schools. Jurors were Katey Finley, artist and MKAC instructor, Michael Fisher, MKAC Exhibits Coordinator, and Beverly Soasey, artist and former Artistic Director of the Jacobs Gallery. All the artwork was created by young artists 13 – 18 and features photographs, mixed media, oil and acrylic paintings, watercolors, and works on paper in pen and ink, pastels, copic markers, and colored pencil. In addition, a number of students from Crow High School exhibit pieces in the medium of fused glass.
Seventeen-year-old William Bolls, from South Eugene High School and new to the Mayor’s Teen Art Show, exhibits two pieces in ink and colored pencil. He often begins his work with no particular direction in mind, preferring to let a dot, a line, or a pattern lead him to further elaborate. He says: “I create because I find there is something wonderful about it. . . . something I love about the feeling of a pen or pencil moving across paper.”
Eighteen-year-old Asha Logan, a graduate of Churchill High School and incoming student at the University of Oregon, displays three photographs in this year’s exhibit. Asha, who focuses primarily on photographs of people, says of her chosen medium: “ I like photography because to me it is capturing a moment in time . . . preserving it, and sharing something people might miss otherwise.”
Sixteen-year-old Sarah Seipert of Churchill High School is a newcomer to the Mayor’s Teen Art Show. She shows two paintings, Refuge, a striking image imbued with symbolism in acrylic and watercolor on canvas of a Syrian refugee, and Self by Monet, a self-portrait in acrylic on tagboard inspired by Monet’s painting style.
