PENDLETON — One high school. Eight students. Unlimited creative expression.
Those are the basic components of this year’s Pendleton Heights High School Senior Art Show, set to start its month-long public viewing with a reception and award presentation Friday at Gallery 119 in Pendleton.
“I’ve known about (the show) since freshman year, and I always was like, ‘I’m going to do that,’” said Reagan Hauk, one of the eight students invited to display a handful of works that they feel represent their artistic abilities.
Students will install their works at the gallery this week. The show will be judged Thursday, with awards for first through third places — including $500, $200 and $100 scholarships, respectively — announced Friday.
Pendleton Heights art teacher Samson Hunckler said visitors to the show — whether they go in-person on visit online — will get to see some amazing artwork by hand-picked students who represent the best of the best.
“There’s a process to it, and the students selected are always, are usually the four-year students, or the three- to four-year students, that have shown a lot of interest and extremely high talent and skill in the arts, and they’re the ones that always get the invite.
“They have to submit a portfolio to be reviewed, then they have to complete an artists statement, they have to create their own promotional posters to be posted around school and to be shared on social media, and then they have to get a head shot in to the gallery because the gallery likes to make promotional posters as well.”
The artist statement is an informal sort of first-person narrative of their art-making — their influences, inspiration and processes.
The show has been going on for at least the 17 years Hunckler has been at the school, he said. It used to take place at the Pendleton Historical Museum before switching to Gallery 119 in recent years.
The number of participating students has fluctuated through the years, sometimes going as high as 20 to 30.
Hunckler said he prefers to keep it to 10 to 15, because with fixed space, a smaller number allows a wider range of pieces from each participating student.
And, “if the group of students is really strong, like this year’s seniors are really strong, it’ll help us produce a really good show. Especially being in a gallery space. Gallery 119 is a great gallery to showcase, and that gives us a really professional feel.”
In addition to Hauk, other seniors in the show are: Alden Quinton, Brooke Bailey, Malana Luttrell, Carly Frakes, Mackenzie Tabor, Ashton Newkirk and Lauren Stambaugh.
Last year the show was all virtual because of the pandemic — with online voting determining the top three awards as well as People’s Choice. This year, the show returns to in-person, along with similar online, access.
The key difference: Shenandoah art teacher Amanda Rhodes will judge the show, awarding the first- through third-place awards.
“She’ll be very impartial because she doesn’t know these students,” Hunckler said. “But she also works with other high school students and can appreciate time, effort, craft, technical skills — all those things that we really want to bring out in the students’ work. She’s going to be extremely valuable as a judge this year.”
A People’s Choice Award comes with a $100 prize; the winner will be decided based on votes cast online throughout the month of the show.
There will be QR codes throughout the gallery that people can scan with their phones to take them to the website where they can vote for their favorite piece.
Newkirk, who said in elementary school she “would always get in trouble for like, doodling on my homework,” said she’s spent the last couple of weeks completing and revising works — “mostly drawings” — for the senior art show. That includes one piece she’s hoping to complete in time: A 24-by-7-inch collage piece, assembled from magazine cutouts and other things, which she’s going to draw with ink wash and colored pencil.
“It’s part of my AP portfolio that I’m going to submit at the end of this school year,” she said. “It’s all about forgiving someone that’s hurt you in the past, like how to forgive them.
“It’s all about that beginning stage, where you’re kind of confused about what even happened in a situation, and trying to piece it all together to make it, like, one big picture, and get the story in order to move to that next step of acceptance.”
Bailey said she “really dove down” into art in ninth grade, inspired by the older students at school. She said she previously had taught herself basic art techniques using online tutorials and supplies she requested for Christmas and birthday presents.
Like Hauk, she works mostly in acrylic paints. Her subject mater is “usually humans — I put a lot of figures in my paintings, and a lot of animals as well, and the relationship between those two.
“Like, for instance, my four-foot painting that I’m working on right now, it’s supposed to represent the curiosity of humans,” she said. It depicts one person, “and she’s actually surrounded by fish, and then I’m thinking of putting a bird in it as well, but I might not, we’ll see.”
Hunckler said the variety in the show is found mostly in style, as the show is comprised mostly of two-dimensional works, such as paintings, drawings, digital and photography, as opposed to three-dimensional work, such as ceramics and jewelry.
The lack of 3-D work, he said, is partly a function of the pandemic, which derailed some projects last year when schools were shut and made it more difficult this year with fluctuations based on COVID-19 risk levels.
“With all the ups and downs, it’s been hard to get a good routine going three-dimensionally, because it just requires time and access to materials and supplies that aren’t commonly found outside the art studio or the art classroom.
Last year, he said, “a lot of pieces never were finished or couldn’t be finished because not everybody has a kiln at home to fire pieces in.”
While the show might lack a certain type of variety, it doesn’t want for quality, he said.
“I’ve worked side-by-side with these students for four years, and I can speak of accolades for each one individually. Some that have just been so dedicated to the craft,” he said. “And I can go on and on about each one. They’re all phenomenal.”
Most of the students in the show plan to pursue careers that incorporate art in some way, Hunckler said. Newkirk said she wants to be an art teacher, and Bailey said she’s considering graphic design or architecture.
With the show in mind, however, most of the students said they’re looking forward to showing people what they can create.
“I hope that people will kind of form their own … meanings behind the art,” Hauk said. “Of course, (the pieces) have my meaning, but I would like for other people to see my art and find them interesting and kind of, in a way, put their own name to it. Not like, in a way, like, ‘Oh, I made this,’ but in a way they can have their own story to it.”
Newkirk said putting work on display is “having my artwork be accepted” as well as having others interact with her creations from their perspective.
“I feel like people, depending on their background, experiences they’ve had in their life, they’re going to pick out something different than what you might have originally thought about while making it,” Newkirk said.
Bailey, who said she likes creating big and detailed pieces that reflect her ambitiousness in life, said she thinks the exhibit will be reaffirming.
“I just really like the opportunity of showing what I’m doing and being represented. It makes me very happy to be recognized.”
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Pendleton Heights Senior Art Show 2021
Alden Quinton
Brooke Bailey
Reagan Hauk
Malana Luttrell
Carly Frakes
Mackenzie Tabor
Ashton Newkirk
Lauren Stambaugh
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Pendleton Heights High School Senior Art Show
Gallery 119, 119 W. State St., Pendleton
The exhibit will be on display the month of April during
regular business hours, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesdays through Saturdays
A reception and awards presentation is
set for 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 2.
The show website, which publishes on
Friday, is https://sites.google.com/smcsc.
com/phhsseniorartshow-2021.
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