Thomas County Central High School students dominated the North Florida Fair Youth Arts Show in Tallahassee. The school’s young artists won more than 60 of the competition’s awards.
Senior Macie Wheeler earned six awards in a variety of mediums, including a first place in the masks category.
“I was pleased with these wins because they can be used in college applications and scholarships, as well as further programs when going into my selected major, art education,” Wheeler said.
She describes her first place piece, “Mask with Spirals.” The mask is her favorite piece entered because she used her creativity when choosing appendages, colors and patterns.
“The idea for this project came to mind because I wanted to create something unique compared to the other projects,” Wheeler said. “I began with a balloon to form the base of the mask. I then covered it in newspaper to give it structure. After drying, I attached cardboard to the base to form appendages and then painted different patterns and colors on the mask with tempera paint.”
Senior Loren Osgatharp earned eight awards. She admits to being “surprised” that so many of her pieces placed but also “overwhelmed with joy from doing a great job.”
“I do feel like these pieces were some of my best works, so I am very proud of myself,” she said.
She earned three first place awards, including in the ceramics category for her creation, “Clay Zebra Woman,” one of Osgatharp’s favorite pieces entered. The artwork is a half animal-half human sculpture of a zebra’s head on a woman’s body.
“I chose to use a zebra as my animal because growing up my favorite question was ‘is a zebra black with white stripes or white with black stripes?’ To create this piece, I sculpted the top of a woman’s body first, and then I sculpted a zebra’s head and sat it on top of the body to join them. After it was out of the kiln, I painted it with acrylic paint.”
Osgatharp’s other favorite piece entered, “The Great Antsby,” earned second place in the mixed media category.
“’The Great Antsby’ is my favorite because it was my own original idea,” she said. “I used something I love and something I hate for the idea of my project. I love ‘The Great Gatsby’ and hate ants, so I paired Gatsby’s body with an ant’s head and it came together better than I would have ever thought.”
Junior Kate Weaver received seven awards, including her first ever “Best of Show” for her watercolor, “Moose Wading.”
“I was surprised to get ‘Best of Show’ and as many first places as I did,” Weaver said. “I am very proud to have won so many times. I am also very proud of the artworks that I created; they took a long time to perfect and I’m glad it paid off.”
Weaver’s favorite piece entered is her first place pastels (charcoal) piece, “Seashells.” She created it using white and black charcoal on gold paper.
“I like the beach and the picture looked the most difficult,” she said. “It’s big and extremely detailed.”
Junior Savannah Barrett won four awards in the competition.
“I am really pleased with the outcome of each artwork,” Barrett said. “I am especially thrilled about my ‘3-Sided Pot.’ Usually, I am not a fan of working with clay but I really enjoyed designing three different, very abstract-looking faces. Artworks like this make me want to do more similar pieces.”
The pot won first place in the pottery division. She describes the process of creating “3-Sided Pot.”
“I kept seeing this tribal mask on the wall in my art class and it inspired me to create my own urban/tribal look with my pottery,” Barrett said. “First, I rolled out clay and began sculpting the three different Picasso-inspired faces. Then, I pressed designs in each and began putting the three slabs together to make the pot. After the pot was fired, I painted it with complementary colors blue and orange.”
Though she enjoyed the process of creating the pot, her favorite piece entered is the third place winning pencil/pen/ink creation, “Old Woman.”
“I love drawing and I’d never done anything woven before,” she said. “I loved all the detail and shading that made it look more realistic.”
Barrett said every art competition and every placement she receives helps her learn how to improve.
“I’m learning new things in art every day, and art competitions make me want to do better,” she said.
North Florida Fair Youth Art Show Winners
Fine Arts Division/High School
Best of Show – - $20 – Kate Weaver (Watercolor)
1st Place
Watercolor – Kate Weaver
Pencil/Pen/Ink – Kate Weaver
Pastels – Kate Weaver
Pottery – Savannah Barrett
Mixed Media – Caylin Dollar
Masks – Macie Wheeler
Collage/Batik/Prints – Loren Osgatharp
2nd Place
Acrylic – Savannah Barrett
Watercolor – Sheridan Hall
Pencil/Pen/Ink – Juan Lopez
Sculpture – Kate Weaver
Pottery – Riley Singletary
Mixed Media – Loren Osgatharp
Masks – Kiana Roman
Collage/Batik/Prints – Macie Wheeler
3rd Place
Acrylic – Caylin Dollar
Pencil/Pen/Ink – Savannah Barrett
Pastels – Kendall Lee
Sculpture – Emily Hastings
Mixed Media – Jennifer Wilson
Collage/Batik/Prints – Caylin Dollar
4th Place
Acrylic – Maria Davis
Watercolor – Loren Osgatharp
Pencil/Pen/Ink – Beisy Lopez
Pastels – Veronica Johnson
Sculpture – Macie Wheeler
Pottery – Maria Davis
Mixed Media – Sheridan Hall
Masks – Sheila Escareno
Collage/Batik/Prints – Carmin Fuentes
5th Place
Watercolor – Beisy Lopez
Pencil/Pen/Ink – Loren Osgatharp
Sculpture – Wyatt Vinson
Mixed Media – Sammy Starling
Masks – Nasya Sanford
Collage/Batik/Prints – Kiana Roman
Honorable Mention
Pencil/Pen/Ink – Wyatt Vinson
Pastels – Nykema Simmons
Sculpture – Loren Osgatharp
Mixed Media – Brooke Hagan
Masks– Emily Hiers
Masks – Esperanza Negrete
Masks– Faithlyn Bowers
Masks – Jada Moore
Collage/Batik/Prints –Sammy Starling
Collage/Batik/Prints – Savannah Barrett
Handicrafts Division High School
1st Place
Ceramics – Sheila Escareno
Paper/Weaving – Cayson Livingston
Jewelry – Kate Weaver
Ceramics – Loren Osgatharp
Mosaic – Chris Harry
Paper/Weaving – Loren Osgatharp
2nd Place
Ceramics – Nykema Simmons
Paper/Weaving – Juan Lopez
Jewelry – Loren Osgatharp
Ceramics – Macie Wheeler
Mosaic – Maria Davis
Paper/Weaving – Kate Weaver
3rd Place
Paper/Weaving – Nykema Simmons
Ceramics – Jennifer Ramos
Mosaic – Macie Wheeler
Paper/Weaving – Brianna Parker
Honorable Mention
Paper/Weaving – Tamara Williams
Ceramics – Macie Wheeler
Ceramics – Wyatt Vinson
Ceramics – Kiana Roman
Mosaic – Sammy Starling