Every year, a group of aspiring artists at Kent School submit their work to be showcased at the Scholastic Art Awards Exhibit in Hartford. This year, sixteen talented students were nominated by the arts department to register their artwork into the competition. In addition, five portfolios were submitted, an all-time high for Kent School.

The pieces entered joined thousands of artworks judged by a panel for prizes and recognition. Prizes are awarded for various categories of art from sculpture, painting, to photography. Jaehan Kim ’15, Mikaela Liotta ’15, Stephanie Schor ’15, Monica Morenz ’15 and Che Maria Baez ’15 were among those whose work received commendation.

Liotta won a state prize for her sculpture “Cake Head Man,” which will place her in the running to receive a national award. Liotta says she was inspired to create her sculpture over the summer while attending a course at Oxford University. The sculpture depicts the professor who taught the course. She says, “I’m a creepy person who notices what people do with their hands and their eyes immediately.” Liotta soon realized that every time the incredibly intelligent professor talked, “he would hold out his hand as if he were holding his ideas in it, and I thought that was beautiful.” And, she explains, “if you look closely the book in his hand is a recipe book for cakes. We hold the recipe for what is in our head.”

Ms. Jenna Lynch, arts department head, acknowledges the hard work that every Kent nominee had put in his or her work. For them, the competition was an opportunity to “show another facet of who they are as individuals.”

Although not every nominee won an award, Ms. Lynch emphasizes that receiving a Kent nomination is also a tremendous honor to those who “do the very best they can in the medium they’re working in.”