Students, teachers and family members celebrated the achievements of talented young visual artists on Feb 26 at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas.
On that Sunday afternoon Hylton PAC hosted a reception and gallery talk for the Prince William County Fine Art Exhibit, an exhibit which features superior artwork by Prince William County student artists throughout the county in grades 1-12.
Patriot senior, Colleen Baylor was the only art student to have a photograph displayed in the gallery.
“I used to take sketching classes,” said Baylor, “but then I began looking at people’s photos and wanted to try.”
Soon photography became a large part of her life, and now Baylor said she plans to major or minor in art next fall.
Patriot photography teacher, Julianne Giampapa attended in support of Baylor and another Patriot student, Sarah Roberts, who has a pen and ink drawing featured in the gallery.
Supervisor for the Arts at Prince William County Schools Joyce Zsembery thanked the Hylton Performing Art Center for hosting the event for the second year in a row. She also thanked parents and teachers, on behalf of the school board and administration, for the support they offered the students.
Debbie Barnard, Administrative Coordinator for the Arts at PWCS, introduced the artists and their works.
The gallery art talk featured four Forest Park seniors, all students of art teacher and department chair, K.C. Farrow. The young artists addressed the explaining the process they underwent in creating their pieces on display.
Three-Dimensional Advance Placement art student Elisabeth Nicolai said, “I’m pretty sure my muscles got bigger," while creating “Entrapped Heart,” the 3-D piece, which she created entirely out of cardboard.
Student Melissa Huryk said she drew upon an art projected she worked on in elementary school as inspiration for her 3-D piece, “Tree of Knowledge.” Huryk comprised the sculpture out of literature she received from art schools, advertising their programs.
Alex Apadaca’s sculpture “City of Gold” is also a commentary on knowledge. The “City” is actually a book containing multiple scrolls thrusting out towards the reader.
Lily Morgan explained her two-dimensional piece “Pink and Orange Flowers.” The pencil drawing in full color is a part of a series of drawings all centered around the same inspiration.
“I definitely learned simplicity is helpful,” said Morgan. “Sometimes the simple stuff is the most beautiful.”
The Prince William County Public Schools art exhibit will run through Mar. 4 in the Buchanan Partners Art Gallery of the Hylton Performing Art Center.
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