2021 MAEA Recognitions Exhibit

Organization or School Affiliation: Chelmsford Public Schools

Student Name: Avery Marr
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: My brother is a sense of warmth in my life. He is always confident or goofy and lights up a room. On a warmer winter day, we were playing in the yard, and I wanted to capture the warmth and light of the sun as he laid in the grass. He posed for me and in that moment, he was radiant, and I truly captured the joy he brings me.

Organization or School Affiliation: Chelmsford Public Schools

Student Name: Audrey Rice
Grade: Grade 9
Artist Statement: I was motivated to portray a Scottish Highland Cow because it illustrates the carefree nature that I wanted to inspire, and this cow reminds me of when I was younger. I used watercolor techniques to demonstrate the dimension of the cow with layers of paint and contrasting colors to add depth. I enjoy experimenting with different shades and tints of a color to achieve my desired effect.

Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School

Student Name: Meghan Flathers
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: I have become really interested by altered books/newspapers as an art form t because I feel it allows me to make a political statement without being so blunt. The actual act of changing a piece of the newspaper seems very powerful to me. I am editing a piece of news just as the media does.

Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School

Student Name: Jasmin Wong
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This painting is my spin on the biblical tale of Adam and Eve. I wanted to transform the original story into a more inclusive one depicting two women of color instead of a white heterosexual couple. I find it hard to find diverse LGBTQ representation in the world, so I like to create my own representation through art.

Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School

Student Name: Katherine Deane
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: At the beginning of my college application process, I felt like I was drowning — buried alive by stress, anxiety, and the expectations of those around me. I collaged all the college pamphlets I received in the mail to portray the overwhelming chaos surrounding me at the time, and I played with facial distortion to convey intense emotion.

Organization or School Affiliation: Falmouth High School

Student Name: Nevaeha Melton
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: I made the saggar vessel to portray the negatives and positives of 2020 through art and words. My inspiration was looking back on 2020 and seeing the affects it had on the United States and how people have reacted and adapted to the unexpected situations that hit us in 2020.

Organization or School Affiliation: Rockport High School

Student Name: Emma Christopher
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: Eden Road winds along Rockport’s coast and holds beautiful eastward views of surrounding islands. My piece showcases Thacher Island on a cold winter evening as the sun is disappearing in the west.

Organization or School Affiliation: Bishop Connolly High School

Student Name: Bethany Slivka
Grade: Grade 10
Artist Statement: For this piece, I wanted to create a realistic black and white portrait of my friend. with a second color image of flowers. I thought it would be interesting to have these colorful flowers to give the portrait life. My friends has a very distinct personality- she is an amazing person and these flowers help show this beauty within her.

Organization or School Affiliation: Oliver Ames High School

Student Name: Tatum Perry
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: My piece is an up-close drawing of my father’s guitar. The composition is completed by scattered sheet music. It displays an approach to music, which can be seen in the reflection of my hand in the tuning keys. Using various colored pencils I created lines of different lengths and boldnesses to convey the depth of the wood grain, as well as marks to capture shadows and glares in the metal.

Organization or School Affiliation: Pentucket Regional Middle and High School

Student Name: Jillian DePaolo
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This acrylic still life of glass bottles was inspired by Janet Fish's work on similar subject matter. Ordinary objects with interesting and always changing reflections.

Organization or School Affiliation: Academy of Notre Dame, Tyngsboro

Student Name: Madeline Walent
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This piece is done digitally in procreate with the intent of capturing an infinite feeling in a fantasy world. The characters are drawn without line art and painted directly onto the digital canvas. The dark blue overlay creates the nighttime effect but the darkness is balanced with hard light on the characters from the moon placing the emphasis on them.

Organization or School Affiliation: Manchester Essex Regional High School

Student Name: Olivia Renzi
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This work is a graphite and charcoal drawing of a necklace given to me by my dad. I used various techniques, such as line, to achieve the correct contrast. I began this work by experimenting with india ink, pen, and graphite. I chose graphite because of its control.

Organization or School Affiliation: Manchester Essex Regional High School

Student Name: Samantha Turner
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: This work is about the city and how it continues to move with and within its inhabitants.

Organization or School Affiliation: Chelmsford High School

Student Name: Hannah Nettikadan
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This piece, like a lot of my artwork, is inspired by history. The figures are a pair of medieval beekeepers, tending to their bees, which I juxtaposed with a contrasting background. The background functions as a past-present comparison, which is why I’ve illustrated the foreground as overgrown and humming with life, while the background is more sweeping, flat, and industrial, like modern farmland.

Organization or School Affiliation: Chelmsford High School

Student Name: Liam McCafferty
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: I'm fascinated by the idea of movement in photography, be it subtle or overt, and as such, much of my work incorporates motion as well - such as the woman's hair in this photo. I adore utilizing movement or capturing it in abnormal ways, leaving the viewer wondering "how was that done?". As such, my art is, fundamentally, an attempt to capture the essence of the surreal.

Organization or School Affiliation: Weston Public Schools

Student Name: Emma Hsiao
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This piece is an experimental digital painting. I wanted to highlight the unique capabilities of digital art in this piece through use of color, lighting, and textures. I wanted to use a lot of blue lighting and highlights- blending colors that would be impractical with traditional media. The use of layers in digital art allowed me to use pencil, charcoal, and pastel textures as highlights.

Organization or School Affiliation: Weston Public Schools

Student Name: Yasmine Sana
Grade: Grade 10
Artist Statement: When creating my road sign, I was thinking about what 2021 or rather, the future in general, would look like. What immediately came to mind was, of course, technology. In the future, I imagine robots not only being implemented into different jobs, but into humans themselves.

Organization or School Affiliation: Weston Public Schools

Student Name: Magnus Starrett
Grade: Grade 9
Artist Statement: I thought to make my portrait still look recognizable, even though it was made of only type. The easiest part was figuring out who I wanted to make a portrait of - Danny DeVito. The most difficult part was learning to use Adobe Illustrator for the first time.

Organization or School Affiliation: Uxbridge High School

Student Name: Margaux Lewis
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: I’m tired of these walls. This pace feels even smaller than it is. Every day, I spend an estimated 20 hours in this single, small room. It serves as my art studio, my classroom, my office, my reading space, and my bedroom. I have become so intimately familiar with this space during my 2020 quarantine, and have learned to adjust my life to fit within this room.

Organization or School Affiliation: Uxbridge High School

Student Name: Jalyn Gingras
Grade: Grade 9
Artist Statement: We sit on little framed screens, behind plexiglass walls. Isolation can be so lonely