The Maude Kerns Art Center, Comcast, and the City of Eugene are proud to announce Mayor Lucy Vinis’s selection for the “Mayor’s Choice Award” as well as other teen award winners among the 36 artists exhibiting in “Fast Forward: The Mayor’s Teen Art Show.” Comcast celebrates its twelfth year as the Title Sponsor for the Art Center’s 2017 Mayor’s Teen Art Show. The exhibit is on view through Friday, September 29. Awards included cash, Oregon Art Supply gift certificates, and a complimentary membership to Maude Kerns Art Center.
The Mayor’s Choice Award: Self-Portrait, mixed media, by Zia Lasky, age 17, Academy of Arts and Academics
The Comcast Choice Award: Kathmandu Street Level, acrylic on canvas, by Haven Burley, age 16, South Eugene High School
The Maude Kerns Art Center Choice Award: Wishful Thinking, acrylic on board, by Hazel Mesman, age 16, Churchill High School
Artist Recognition Awards:
Untitled, scratchboard, by Alice Adams, age 16, Sheldon High School
Maisy Pearl, graphite, by Jenna Cowan, age 17, Academy of Arts and Academics
The Counselor, pens, markers, and pencils, by Rimona Livie, age 15, North Eugene High School
Papa, colored pencil on paper, by Cassie Taylor, age 15, Churchill High School
The Maude Kerns Art Center is honored to present the eighteenth annual “Fast Forward: The Mayor’s Teen Art Show,” on view September 8 through September 29. The Art Center gratefully acknowledges Comcast in its twelfth year as the Title Sponsor for the Mayor’s Teen Art Show.
The Reception and Awards Ceremony take place on Friday, September 15, from 6 – 8 pm. Mayor Lucy Vinis announces the Mayor’s Choice Award. 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.
“Fast Forward: The Mayor’s Teen Art Show” was first initiated at the Art Center in September of 2000 to provide a special venue for teens in the larger Eugene-Springfield area to show their work. Teen artists have the opportunity to learn about submitting a formal application with an artist’s statement, going through a jurying process, and preparing artwork to be shown.
The 2017 Mayor’s Teen Art Show features 41 artists from 11 schools. The jurors for the exhibit were artist and past Mayor’s Teen Art Show award winner Daphne Cox, painter Margaret Leutzinger, and artist and MKAC instructor Isaac Paris. Mediums represented are oil and acrylic, graphite, scratchboard, linoleum block print, sculpture, photography, paint pen, watercolor, and ink. There is also a film entry by 16-year-old Kashi Hughes from the Academy of Arts and Academics titled Life without a Home.
Among the artists juried in to the 2017 Mayor’s Teen Art Show is 15-year-old Morgan Henery from Oak Hill School, who exhibits a striking linoleum block print and watercolor piece called Niitsitapi, which is an alternate name for the Blackfoot Native American tribe. In his artist statement, Morgan explains that his father often would tell him stories of the Napi and how the world was created. He says about his print: “This work shows my respect and awe of Blackfoot culture.” Sixteen-year-old Hazel Mesman from Churchill High School, displays an acrylic on chipboard painting titled Wishful Thinking. The top portion of the work depicts famous landmarks around the world. The bottom portion includes multi-colored reflections representing the different cultures of the landmarks above. Mesman says: “Each culture is wonderfully beautiful alone but when they join all together they balance each other and become more magnificent than ever before.”
Artist Cassie Taylor, 15 years old, from Churchill High School, exhibits two colored pencil drawings and an acrylic painting in the Mayor’s Teen Art Show. Cassie’s precisely rendered colored pencil portrait of her grandfather, titled Papa, was inspired by a photograph of her grandfather in his boat at Fern Ridge Reservoir. She created the underlying structure in freehand and then finished with more detailed colored pencil.
