Centennial Students Shine at Art Show
January 21, 2017
Featuring magnificent artwork created by the best artists of Centennial and its feeder schools such as Christie Elementary and Clark Middle School, the Frisco ISD art show, held on Thursday, did not disappoint.
Centennial could only bring 14 pieces of art to be enjoyed by the many spectators that came, a great honor for those who were chosen. Junior Peyton Stryker, one of the students featured at the show, says she was greatly surprised when she found out her piece was going to be at the show.
“I honestly didn’t expect my artwork to be featured,” Stryker said. “I love the class and everything but I never really thought this would be something I could do, and it was just a lot of excitement all at once.”
She says her inspiration for her piece is culture.
“My work was drawn with charcoal, which is where I’ve been leaning toward lately, and it’s inspired by pop artists and what’s going on in society right now,” Stryker said.
Art teacher Ashley Ham says the process selection was very hard, considering the amount of talented students that submitted works.
“There was a lot of really great pieces to choose from, and since we were given a small area that has really weird dimensions, I tried to choose as many artworks as I could, thinking about size,” Ham said. “The 14 pieces that I chose all kind of fit nicely together and look cohesive as a body of work. I also wanted to make sure all the classes were represented, so I had art from Art 1 all the way up to AP classes.”
The piece most prominently showcased at the show was junior Grace Zhang’s, an acrylic painting of a young girl with a flower crown and golden halo done on a wooden panel. Zhang says the piece, called “Innocence,” is part of her concentration.
“My concentration revolves around the theme of flowers, and I’m using this flower language to describe the process from innocence to corruption,” Zhang said. “This was the very first piece in the concentration and it was supposed to represent innocence. The young girl and the halo shows that she’s angelic, and daisies represent purity.”
She says she was extremely proud to be chosen after working very hard on the painting.
“I never really expect any art piece of mine to get chosen,” Zhang said. “I actually spent a lot of time and effort on this piece so it made me feel like I actually accomplished something all those hours when I found out it was going to be displayed.”
The wonderful artwork displayed at the Centennial reception of the FISD art show speaks to the incredible gift these art students have, something Ham can testify to.
“When I came to Centennial to teach art last year, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of talent these art students have,” Ham said. “It definitely keeps me on my toes, and I enjoy it greatly.”
The pieces will continue to be on display at the FISD administration building until Jan. 26, and students, parents and the public are encouraged to come see them.
