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Sullivan,
Walton win big
in
DJ’s holiday art contest
Staff
Report
Crystal Walton
and Crystal Sullivan have not only in common their first names.
They also share the distinction of
winning the highest honors in the Desert Journal’s 2001 High School
Holiday Art Contest.
Walton, 18, a senior at Hot Springs
High School, won first place in the hand drawn division while Sullivan,
16, a junior at HSHS, nabbed victory in the computer drawn division. It
would be Sullivan’s second win, as well as Walton’s second honor in
the contest, two years in a row.
“The contest taps on students’
talent in designing a greeting card for the holidays and provides them the
opportunity to be recognized by having their artwork published in the
Desert Journal’s special Christmas supplement, besides winning a cash
prize for their holiday vacation,” said Teresa Johnson, publisher of the
Desert Journal and creator of the contest in December 1996.
“The sixth annual contest despite its
low participation this year brought out the best of the best in terms of
the art produced by the entrants,” said Bill Johnson, DJ editor.
“In fact, I regard this supplement
one of our best because we are able to give the students’ artwork ample
amounts of space – so bigger means better. To do that, we had to double
up on sponsors,” he said.
In the hand drawn division, Jared
Jankowski, 17, a junior at HSHS, placed second and Scot Sullivan, 14, a
freshman at HSHS, came in third.
Prize money of $75, $50 and $25 was
awarded to the first, second and third place winners, respectively.
HSHS Art Teacher Ernest Rodgers, who
views the contest as great opportunity for his art students, said
participation was low this year because only two of his six art students
in the fall chose to enter.
He said he expects next year’s
participation to increase greatly as he will have art students in his
spring semester class work on their entries months in advance, in addition
to getting next fall semester’s class involved.
Rodgers said also that participation in
the computer division was poor because there were no computer art classes
during the fall semester. And Jim Griebel, who had taught the computer
classes and got his students to enter the contest, left his employment at
the school last year, Rodgers said.
“The contest originally featured hand
drawn entries only, but the computer drawn division was phased in the
second year when we got a lot of these entries. We couldn’t lump
together hand drawn and computer drawn entries so we separated them into
two divisions on the spur of the moment, thus increasing both the
students’ opportunities and cash prizes for the contest,” Johnson
said.
Aspen ni Wood, director of the Sierra
County Arts Council and the contest’s judge this year, also welcomes
opportunities that encourage young people to become challenged in the
arts.
“Next year we hope to promote the
contest much sooner than we have with more lead time so that students, who
also tend to get busy this time of year, have plenty of time to complete
their entries,” Johnson said.
“It is our sponsors who make the
prize money and the publication of the Christmas supplement possible. Both
we at the Desert Journal and our contest participants salute the
sponsors,” he said.
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