By Deemah Pulak
Senior Siobhan O’Casey slowly walked through the Texas Visual Arts Association (TVAA) Downtown Art Gallery staring in awe at the intricate pieces of artwork, doubting that her art would ever be there. Every year, out of the thousands of applicants, only a select few get picked to hang their piece in the gallery.
“I wasn’t so sure I’d actually make it in the exhibit because there was all this great stuff in the gallery already,” O’Casey said. “When I found out I was chosen this year, I got pretty excited.”
O’Casey’s piece, “Southern Belle,” made it into the 2015 TVAA art exhibition at the University of Texas at Dallas.
“I tried to make my piece unique,” O’Casey said. “I thought of something which I thought others wouldn’t have thought of.”
O’Casey drew a portrait of a friend on her basketball team and focused on keeping the artwork in the theme of ‘Texas.’
“At first I started drawing out of nowhere because my friend wanted a portrait, so I did it,” O’Casey said. “I added flowers and designs to the background to make it stand out, but I made it different in way to depict that a person is not only beautiful from the outside but from the inside also.”
Winners of the TVAA Competition will receive money, awards and scholarships.
“The competition is open to anyone, so just getting selected from the entries is a big accomplishment,” art teacher Sonia Krusleski said. “The awards are great too since they will help the student in the near future.”
In addition to O’Casey, seniors Audrey Brown and Laney Lynn were selected for the Emerging Artist Cottonwood Art Festival exhibit.
“I’m honored to be selected for this,” Brown said. “I feel that the artworks that are selected each have their own value no matter if it is a painting, drawing or a sculpture”
Their artwork will be displayed at the Eisemann Center during the month of April.
“I’m very proud of their work,” Krusleski said. “They are all excellent artists, and they’ve achieved probably some of the highest goals possible for a senior. Entering these competitions and being accepted into these exhibits is a huge deal.”
The students will also sell their artwork at the Cottonwood Art Festival the first weekend of May.
“I want the students to show to the public their competence as an artist,” Krusleski said. “They are outstanding students as well as artists and in order for them to realize that, they should compete and see what’s happening out there because their work is as good as any college student’s.”
O’Casey said that art allows her to express herself the way she wants it to.
“I can express myself with art, and it’s really fun to do,” O’Casey said. “You can mess around with colors and end up with something really neat. It’s something I just ended up being good at, so I might as well do it.”
Krusleski said she feels that the students will excel in any area they hope to get into in the future.
“Art is very competitive, and if they can succeed at the high school level, they will definitely succeed out there once they graduate,” Krusleski said. “The opportunities for them are very rare, and they don’t realize the great opportunities that are out there for them.”