Titan Art Talent Shines Through at Annual Art Show
Mrs. Freeman is joined by seniors at their last Art Show.
On Wednesday, March 20th, Dominion High School held their annual art show, a display of talent that included both physical art pieces and numerous performances by various groups. With over 150 students showcased with physical artwork across multiple grades and art classes, the event was a massive endeavor planned by Dominion High School art teacher Shannon Freeman.
“I think it’s wonderful, the work they show, they’re really proud of and I’m really proud of them for taking ownership of that, so I love it, it’s one of the most exhausting nights to put together,” Freeman said. “It’s also one of the most beautiful nights to be an art teacher here at Dominion.”
Any entry by a senior art student, regardless of the class they were enrolled in, was eligible to be judged by a three-person panel consisting of Julia Galvin, an LCPS supervisor, Kristin Epperson, an art teacher at River Bend Middle School, and Amy Curran, an ATLAS parent.
First place went to Martin Sandoval whose piece was centered upon a subject that deeply affected him. “The rhino piece is supposed to symbolize the poaching that’s going on in Africa right now, and how the media doesn’t cover it, so I decided to use my art skills to show everyone what’s happening,” Sandoval said.
The award winning piece by Martin Sandoval.
“I’ve always had a strong affection towards animals, I grew up with them so i have feeling for them,” Sandoval said. “When i see that they are being poached and it isn’t covered on the news and nobody really cares that much, that’s when i decided to speak out, because I feel nobody else is.”
Sandoval used graphite, charcoal, and marker, starting out with light strokes to outline the piece and then building from light to dark as he went along. He was surprised to learn of his result. “I thought first place was gonna go to Gray or Hannah, I thank the judges for their generosity. I feel honored, it feels good to be first place,” he said.
The second place prize went to Grayson Bradstock, who was happy to receive the award. “It feels good, I’m really proud of everyone in the art show and I’m proud of my work,” Bradstock said. “My piece focuses in on mental illness and instead of inner demons, it looks at the misguided angels that go behind it. The piece that won is a person that is associating, and they don’t feel that they’re in the moment of what they’re doing, their life is going in slow motion so it’s three different heads of the same person in different time frames.”
Bradstock also won the faculty choice award, one voted on by Dominion High School teachers who attended the event.
The third place prize went to Hannah Peacock for one of her concentration pieces. “I’m very surprised and really honored because our program is so big and we have so many talented people,” Peacock said.
“My concentration pieces focus around a world event and my life event,” Peacock said. “As they go chronologically, I draw myself smaller to show that as we grow up we become less naive and realize that the problems around the world are vast, this one addresses water purification problems in Africa.”
Seniors in the AP Art class were given entire boards for themselves, and the decision to fill them was left up to them. “They had two ways of thinking,” Freeman said. “One, their strongest works that they’ve created, they’ve been with us for four years so they have four years of work to pick from. Or they may have been working towards concentration for their AP portfolios, so they may have wanted similar pieces together”.
This was the fourteenth year of the art show, featuring multiple performers including Blank Slate, the middle and high school bands, the elementary and high school choirs, and numerous small strings performers.
“The whole idea is that it’s all the different types of art, a lot of time, people think of art as just paper and pencil or painting,” Freeman said. “No, it’s all the music groups that want to perform and can’t perform, all of the drama pieces, it’s always been about celebrating all the arts.”
Freeman was bullish on the artistic talent inside the Titan building. “I think the amount of talent here is the best in the county.”
Varun Shankar is a senior at Dominion High School. He has always wanted to be a journalist, largely because of its writing focus. His love of sports then...
