By Gabrielle Tanksley
Staff writer
Over the summer, Jamesville-DeWitt High School’s art students dominated the 43rd annual Teenage Competitive Art Exhibition. This exhibition is to feature the work of underrepresented teen artists.
Carlos Benedict, drawing and painting teacher at J-DHS, was proud to say that the J-DHS students who decided to enter the contest placed “really, really high in everything.” Students who participated were from the Syracuse and Onondaga area. Local art professionals judged the artwork at the Community Folk Art Center in downtown Syracuse from May 30 to June 13. J-DHS students took first through third place in painting and drawing. Senior Rebecca Shen not only took first place in Drawing with her piece titled “Wrinkles,” she also won Best in Show for her piece “Freckles.” In the Painting catagory, from first to third was “Red” by sophomore Niki Jiang, “Fish” by senior Zarina Bulatova, and senior Himi Begum’s untitled piece featuring plants. In the Drawing catagory, from first to third was “Wrinkles” by Shen, “Drips” by sophomore Sabri Hafizuddin, and “Catarin” by Madeline Vanhusen. For both categories, the students who placed in first won $100, second place won $50, and third place won $25. For winning best in show, Shen recieved another $150.
In other art news, a piece by Dalya Al-Hoshishi, a graduate of 2015, is now hanging in the Lyndon Baines Johnson United States Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. Mr. Benedict explained that if a student wins a Gold Key at the annual Scholastic Art Competition, their piece is sent to New York City. “Dalya won a gold medal for that drawing, and so they selected that to hang in Washington,” said Mr. Benedict, beaming with pride for his student. There was a ceremony on Sept. 25, 2015 for Al-Hoshishi’s piece among others that went on to D.C. Al-Hoshishi is currently attending Le Moyne College.
