The Award Ceremony for the Sixth Ravine Art Contest was held on February 24, amid a mix of teachers, student artists and their families. Nearly 90 works were on display at the Northwood ARTSpace; the largest number of entries in Ravine Art Contest history. Among the entries were painted landscapes, wildlife prints, photography, haiku poetry and plenty of owls. The contest for K-12 students in Franklin County has been successful for us in spreading our message of ravine protection and restoration. Some art entries have focused on common ravine problems such as litter, invasive species, and dwindling habitat.
The variety and creativity of Contest entries continues to impress audiences during each annual gallery exhibit. Each year, students submit artwork that captures a melding of nature and science with art. Some students from the Columbus Gifted Academy submitted wonderful bird mono-prints, some adorned with spectrograms (a visual scientific notation) for the vocalization of specific bird species. At first glance, these spectrograms are reminiscent of the reddish ownership stamps commonly seen on Japanese prints. In a collaboration with the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, students selected a bird species and learned about their habits and habitat, then created artworks that were submitted to the Contest.
This mono-print of a screech owl entitled Glowing Night Eyes is by sixth grader Lucia Dipaola of Columbus Gifted Academy. His favorite ravine is at Hayden Run.
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Many people contributed to make the contest a success. Many thanks to Linda and Eric Burden for being key donors underwriting school prizes and exhibition expenses. This year, our panel of judges included Amy Youngs, an environmental artist and assistant professor in OSU’s Department of Art, and Maria Juranko of the Wexner Center of the Arts. These jurors volunteered their expertise in selecting winners from each grade category.
A number of organizations supported the contest by donating items to include in student prize packages including Blick Art Materials, REI, Sierra Club Central Ohio Chapter, Columbus GreenSpot and Half Price Books. Still others volunteered their time and labor to help install the exhibit, print student certificates (Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission) and close out the gallery exhibit and returning the artwork to student artists. Thanks to all of these individuals and organizations for supporting the Ravine Art Contest.
Friends of the Ravines was proud to award student and the corresponding school prizes for the following categories:
Visual Art Grades K-2 – Lilly Sagraves, a kindergartner from Georgian Heights Alternative Elementary for her bird collage
Visual Art Grades 3-5 – Fifth grader Alayiah Taylor-Mitchell, from Westgate Elementary School for her decorative squirrel with an acorn
Poetry Grades 3-5 – Fifth grader Jesse Imler, from Georgian Heights Alternative Elementary School for her illustrated haiku entitled Winding Hallow
Visual Art Grades 6-8 – Sixth grader Nora Hagen of Indianola Informal K8 School for her landscape created with watercolor and gel pen entitled Ravine Dream. Her favorite ravine is Walhalla Ravine.
Visual Art Grades 9-12 – Ninth grader Eduardo Varona attends Independence High School. His entry, River, was created with pencil and employed blending and shadowing favored by judges.
At the Award Ceremony, student artist Hunter Johnson, of Columbus Gifted Academy provided a detailed account of the brush work and blending he used to create his landscape painting of a waterfall entitled “Snowy Night.” According to his entry form, he was “inspired by Bob Ross by his working with the flow and the happy little trees.” Hunter is in fifth grade and his favorite ravine is Glen Echo Ravine.