Four students of Wiscasset schools were honored in the Blaine House on Dec. 18 for their artwork, which will be on display in Augusta until March as part of the Fall 2012 Maine Youth Excellence in Art exhibition.
Waylon Bogart, 7, Charles Colby, 13, Alyssa Urquhart, 17, and Alyssa Smith, 18, were all present at the Blaine House to receive certificates presented by First Lady Ann LePage.
The pieces in the exhibition “are a testament to the hard work and the talent of the selected students,” LePage said.
Charles Stanhope, the Chair of the Maine Arts Commission, said the exhibit “celebrates exemplary two-dimensional visual art” from Maine students in grades K-12.
Smith’s piece was Intaglio portrait of a family pet made by scratching the piece into plexiglass, inking it, and making a print. After the ceremony, Smith said she was proud to be honored.
“It’s exciting to have my artwork shown to more than just the Wiscasset community,” she said.
“I’m proud as well, I think that word describes it,” Urquhart said. Urquhart’s piece was a photo montage of different parts of Wiscasset High School.
“It’s very exciting that my name was in here,” Colby said. “The [Blaine House] was cool, and it was cool to meet the First Lady.”
For his piece, Colby crafted his own sheet of milkweed paper and used it to print a motif of a striped large mouth bass.
Bogart’s piece was a still-life line drawing done in pen.
The four students’ artwork are on display along with artwork from other honored students in the Burton M. Cross Office Building in the State capital complex until March, and the exhibition also has artwork in the Blaine House, the Maine State House, and the Maine Arts Commission.
Teachers select and submit students’ work to the program “that they feel represents excellence.” Exhibitions are typically held three times each year, according to Meagan Mattingly, an Arts and Education Associate with the Maine Arts Commission.
