The Future is Here, and it Looks Colorful

Proof you needn't fear a decline in the nation's creative output is on display-literally-this month at Lyme Academy College of Fine Art, where Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA) is celebrating the area students juried into its 2012 Future Choices exhibition.

This year's show features 160 pieces in media including ceramics, drawing, mixed media, pastels, photography, prints, painting, and sculpture. Among those represented are students from Daniel Hand High School and The Grove School (Madison), Guilford High School, Haddam-Killingworth High School, The Morgan School (Clinton), Old Saybrook High School, Oxford Academy (Westbrook), Valley Regional High School (Chester, Deep River, and Essex), and Westbrook High School.

Even as 2012 marks SAA's 29th year presenting Future Choices, Co-Chair Ruth Baxter says each exhibition still feels special.

"Every year there's a very distinctive mix of styles and approaches...[of] varied techniques, approaches, and materials. I'm surprised every year-it blows you away," she says.

Co-Chair Kathleen Bidney-Singewald adds, "The talent is incredible."

Eric Dillner, who stepped into the role of SAA executive director just six months ago, is enjoying his first Future Choices exhibition.

"These kids do such a great job," he enthuses. "It's amazing how many artists are out there that are spectacular, and it's exciting to think that we have kids who express themselves through art and not video games."

And there's quite a range to those expressions. From reflections on the pragmatic and built environment to musings on the creative process and the struggles of growing up, Future Choices' student-artists show they know how to convey their innermost thoughts and ambitions. Last week, Living spoke to seven of the exhibit's top award winners about their work.

John Paul Abarca

School: Lyme-Old Lyme High School

Media: Drawing

Prize: First place for Phase Six: Climax

and second place for Phase 8: Finale

For John Paul Abarca, an interest in building structure and a talent for drawing are the perfect match.

"I'm...a draftsman, a realist...I approach [my drawings] really conceptually...I start out with broad shapes and redefine them to fit whatever I like. Both Phase 6: Climax and Phase 8: Finale came from a self-developing model where I started out with one really broad shape that could have turned into anything...They kept growing each time I would add something, and I would never subtract anything."

Abarca says he recently realized he'd like to pursue architecture in college, which he plans to begin next fall. Currently, his favorite architect is Frank Lloyd Wright.

Emma Ballachino

School: Lyme-Old Lyme High School

Media: Ceramics

Prize: First place for Raku Coiled Pot

Emma Ballachino credits her high school, which holds a Raku Day, with inspiring her award-winning ceramic coiled pot. This year, when given the opportunity to make a large piece, she knew immediately what shape her project would take.

"I really wanted to make something really earthy and round and not very stylized-a natural shape," says Ballachino of Raku Coiled Pot.

The senior has worked with ceramics since her freshman year, but also counts illustration and graphite drawing among her favorite media. She plans to combine her love of art with her passion for children by declaring a dual major in illustration and education next fall.

"I want to hone my skills before I teach other people," she explains. "I really love kids. I've benefitted by working with other people [artistically] and I hope I can share that" experience with future students.

Sarah Gavagan

School: Guilford High School

Media: Painting

Prize: First place for Still

Life Glass and second place for Dressing Up

This isn't Sarah Gavagan's first major prize for 2012; the junior has also received a Gold Key for Painting award in the Connecticut State Scholastic Arts Competition and Exhibition hosted by Hartford Art School. A love of color connects her work.

"I'm inspired by color. I have this weird obsession with bright colors and colors in general and how they work together," says Gavagan, who counts Alice Neel and Alex Katz among her favorite artists.

Gavagan ultimately aspires to major in illustration or sequential art in college, but, for now, she's busy working on her AP art exam concentration: reverse gender roles. The project involves paintings from live models.

Tiffany Li

School: Daniel Hand High School

Media: Painting

Prize: First place for

Ambiguity

Daniel Hand junior Tiffany Li had some big emotions to tackle when she took on Ambiguity as a school assignment.

"I was really focused on all the turmoil and feelings about what I wanted to do with my future...I was fighting with myself and things that I believed in and what others wanted me to do...I needed to take out that anxiety somewhere," she says.

While self-portraits like this are typical subjects for Li, she usually prefers graphite as a medium.

"Ambiguity was really an experimental piece," she says.

Li also appreciates photography.

"I really like those street photographers that take pictures of people in unsuspecting places, that bring out the inner nature of people."

Li plans to pursue a course of study in illustration or painting after high school.

Jana Pietrzyk

School: Daniel Hand High School

Media: Prints

Prize: First place for Fey

Jana Pietrzyk will exercise her love of indexing and organization when she enrolls in a library science program next year, but art allows her to think outside boundaries.

"My art is very whimsical. It's not exact and it's always a little out of proportion, but on purpose. It's always not quite right."

Pietrzyk calls poetry her "main art force," but admits that her artwork "correlates" nicely with it.

"Art is something that I like to do as a hobby. It's something that gets the colors on a page because I can never find the right words for colors, and there's never enough words for a picture. If I can draw it or I can paint it, it's expressed in a whole different way," she says.

Erica Schillawski

School: Lyme-Old Lyme High School

Media: Painting

Prize: Best in Show for

Unbroken

Song lyrics inspired Erica Schillawski's Best in Show-winning painting Unbroken, which she made in fulfillment of a class assignment on color.

Schillawski says she takes a methodical approach to painting. She begins with an idea, then sketches, makes thumbnails, and completes the underpainting.

"I like, after the underpainting is done, when [the piece] starts to look like I envisioned it in my mind."

Though she enjoys working in various media, from drawing to sculpture to pottery and photography, Schillawski says one theme connects all of her work.

"All of my work is grotesque and dark," says the senior whose favorite artist is a graphic designer.

Schillawski is still waiting to hear from several of the colleges to which she's applied. Her first choice is Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida.

Lotty Vigue

School: Valley Regional High School

Media: Sculpture

Prize: First place for

Chocolate Frogs

It may be hard to believe, but Chocolate Frogs was Lotty Vigue's first and only foray into sculpture. The unique piece takes Harry Potter as its subject.

"It's the train scene," says Vigue of the repurposed book. "Harry Potter is the base, but the train is actually the book Inkheart. I was trying to show the concept that authors, when they first write their book, come up with one idea, but once it's gone through the editing process and everybody's read it, it's not their book anymore; it's another book."

Vigue says she typically finds inspiration for her main media-sketching and animation-in daily life and current events. Her favorite artist is Pixar's John Lasseter, but she most respects Walt Disney: "not necessarily his work-because he wasn't the best artist-but because he had so much passion and drive that he was able to make it."

Future Choices 2012 is on display through Tuesday, March 13 in Lyme Academy College of Fine Art's Sill Gallery, 84 Lyme Street, Old Lyme.