Entering the Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts, the energy of the works of art lining up the walls for the Fort Myers Beach Art Association student scholarship wall was as palpable as if they were in a Harry Potter movie.
So was the enthusiasm of the school’s students who attended the show to see the beaming artworks from the gifted students who displayed them.
By the end of the show, there were three winners announced by the judges but every artist involved was a winner. The amount of talent on display was enough to field a spring training art team.
The grand prize went to Emily Morris, whose collection of artworks will help pay for her studies at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design.
Second place went to Cristina Becerra, who is still deciding on which school to attend. Third place went to Ella Morley, who is planning to attend the University of South Florida.
The Fort Myers Beach Art Association donated $3,000 for the scholarship awards.
There was no doubt as to the quality of work.
For Morris, her art expresses her sentimentalism and is sometimes influenced by music she enjoys. “I really like reminiscing,” Morris said. From the colorful acrylic paint in “memories of a circus” that includes a carousel record she enjoyed as a child, to the charcoal on paper acrylic paint of her cat Nico next to a self portrait titled “MEOW”, the personality of Morris is communicated through her work.
“My favorite thing is I like the technical work I did with the charcoal,” Morris said. “I like how smoothly it goes,” she said. “You have to be really intentional.”
As part of her art education, Morris used oil pastels for the first time. Other art pieces include paper mache a as part of an assignment titled “inaccessible design” that depicted handicapped access to a home and a turtleneck sweater with tea bags as part of another assignment. Morris is interested in illustration.
Like the other winners, Becerra excels at self portraits. Her featured art includes a self portrait in graphite and mixed media. Becerra’s vivide and thoughtful sharp self portraits are surrounded by mixed media with images of a cell phone, a cat and giraffes walking in a distance amid a sunset with messages cut out from magazines that say “calm” and “be like other people.” A touch of glitter adds to the spirit of the art.
“I like how the collaging turned out,” Becerra said. “it was my first time doing it.”
In another work, Berra explores psychology and subjects like her passions and balancing “ego” and “super ego.” Her art wrestles with the concept of “changing myself to fit for somebody.”
For Morley, much of her showcased work at the show revolves around self reflections including self portraits which are astoundingly close to real life. One of her self portraits titled “Reflections” is an oil painting that was created with the help of a foldout mirror and photo.
“It was one of my first times working with oil,” Morley said. “I am very proud of it.”
Another impressive work titled “Boxed In” was created with the use of acrylic paint. She started the self portrait as a sophomore and finished it in her senior year. Morley said the art is a commentary on the pressures of life.
One of those pressures is the demands of applying to colleges, which she depicts in her painting “Meee.” In the painting, Morley is hiding behind her favorite stuffed animal white tiger. Morley describes the stuffed animal, whose nose fell off but was saved by her mother, as her “last piece of innocence.”
“As you grow up, you get more caged in,” Morley said. Morley said she enjoys attending Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts. “It is a lot of fun with interesting project ideas. It’s really fun. The teachers are always there to help you,” she said. “I like the process.”
Morley said the scholarship award “feels very surreal. I’m very grateful.”
Fort Myers Beach Art Association President Joan Zeoli said the association wasn’t able to do the annual scholarship show last year due to Hurricane Ian, which destroyed the organization’s gallery and impacted many of the group’s members. “I’m so happy we were able to do it (this year),” Zeoli said.
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