Hill Keath, Balistir McCain, & Mary-Michael Todd have been making art for a few years at St Cyprian’s Episcopal School and this week, they will be entering the Arts and Crafts division at the Angelina County Fair.
Hill, Balistir and Mary-Michael are just three of the 30 entrants from St Cyprians competing this year. All told, there are 221 total from across the county!
Sponsored by SafeCo Security Systems, the Arts & Crafts division has six categories to enter. They include fine arts, photography, woodworking, metal, wood/metal combo, and, lastly, an open division. Each of these can be broken down into further sub-divisions or classes.
Mrs. Becky McKinley is the art instructor at St Cyprian’s and is excited to have so many students participate. McKinley says, “I want my students to come away with knowledge of individual artists, art history, some terms and vocabulary relating to art.”
Most importantly, she prides her class as an opportunity for “creative outlet where there are no wrong answers.”
Some of the mediums covered at St Cyprian’s are woodworking, mosaics, painting, ceramics, tin and more. In addition to more traditional artists that most folks may know of, McKinley discusses some current, non-traditional graffiti or street artists.
Entries were due in Feb and were $10 per entry. Age divisions are Pee-Wee (grades K-2), Pre-Junior (grades 3-6), Juniors (grades 7-9), and Seniors (grades 10-12). All but the Pee-Wees are eligible for the auction.
I asked Hill what his favorite part of art was and he said he loves working the marble maze at the end of each art class period. Hill is in 5-K and this is his third year at St. Cyprian’s.
Balistir is a 2nd grader and her favorite art project was “Painting the pastel hearts.”, just like a street artist they had studied earlier.
Mary-Michael, also in 2nd grade, said simply, “It’s fun to paint! My favorite is the mosaics and ceramics. I made a bowl that was formed around a leaf to get its shape.”
Their paintings and the rest of the 200 + entries will be turned in on Wednesday this week from 2-7 pm. Judging takes place on Friday morning and will be open to the public Friday afternoon thru Saturday at lunch.
Only those who win the top prize in their age category within their division (not including Pee-Wee) will make the auction. The auction will be held on Saturday, April 22 at 4 pm at the George H. Henderson Jr. Expo Center. For more information about this year’s Fair, go to www.angelinacountyfair.com.
