Freshman Yana Tsyvis and sophomore Shivani Kapadia took home Gold Key awards from the Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards for the categories of Painting and Fashion. Their art was featured at the awards ceremony on January 28 at the University of Hartford.

Winners in regional competitions were submitted to the national Scholastic Awards competition. Both Tsyvis and Kapadia’s pieces were showcased at the Hartford Lincoln Theater and submitted for the national competition.

“I think the scholastic art awards are important because they recognize the outstanding artists. Usually in life, compe-
tition makes people strive to work harder. I think it’s good that people are recognized for their hard work,” art teacher Katarina
McKinney said.

Inspiration for the “Queen of Cards,” which earned Kapadia the Gold Key in Fashion and Jerry’s Best in Fashion Award, came from her love of playing cards.

“It started out as an in-school assignment in which we had to design and make an unconventional garment, meaning it could be made of anything other than fabric. I spent many weeks working on this dress, bringing it back and forth from my house to school, as well as coming in during free periods and spending extra time on it,” Kapadia said.

The painting “Profound” created by Tsyvis was inspired by her freedom of what she can draw and the mood she was in when thinking about the concept which is strongly influenced in her sketches and final product. Her work reflects the meaning of the word she chose, and its symbolic meaning.

“My word was ‘profound,’ and I chose it because it is a strong word and also it has a very deep meaning. It keeps a ‘profound’ secret. I touched on it only superficially. The meaning of this word and to represent it, I used the symbols like whale and sea bottom, but every sea keeps its own secrets, like a sunken ship,” Tsyvis said.

The artwork of five students from the art classes offered in the school were selected by each art teacher in the school and submitted to the Scholastic Art awards. The submission process included an online application with images of the art piece submitted to feature the art work.

Tsyvis was aided throughout the process by her art teacher.

“I did not know about this competition before. My wonderful art teacher introduced me to it and advised me to send the artwork to the competition. It is pretty big deal because I was competing against students from all over Connecticut. Painting is a tough category to win in because it gets a lot of submissions. I saw a part of the exhibition and I would say that everyone’s work deserved attention,” Tsyvis said.

The Scholastic Awards are open for anyone in middle school and high school to enter including homeschooled, private, and public-school children.

“Art influences my moral values, my view of the world, and even my actions. Art influenced my personality. I can use different perspectives to solve a problem using an artistic problem-solving ability. I look at things differently, I notice what others can not notice in simple things such as ordinary subjects and more complex things such as people, their behavior and mood,” Tsyvis said.