Out of 42 middle and high school entries, senior Lauren Smith’s piece “Shattered” was the annual Wood County Art Show’s best in show piece. PHS had students placing in every category, and all of the winners for the 10th grade division were Big Reds. The show was held on March 25 at the Parkersburg Art Center. Art pieces ranged from pottery to paintings to sculptures.
With weeks to months of effort from Smith, she made two pieces: “Shattered” and “Blue Tongued Skink.” “Shattered” was made with ceramics and glass. It looks like a torso but as it spins around there’s an opening showing the glass pieces on the inside. She took months just to do the glass shattering because it was tedious and she had to break many mirrors.
“I am leaving it up to other people’s interpretation because I like to see what other people come up with,” Smith said about her piece.
For her next piece, she said she’ll continue to use the mirrors she had broken and make a head out of broken mirror pieces.
“Don’t stop doing your art, even when it gets hard, because that’s the point,” Smith said.
Sophomore Willow Richmond, the first-place winner in the 10th grade division, had been working on her piece since Jan 24, up until a week before the contest. She said she spent 97 hours in total on her “Creatures of Pandora” sculpture, which consists of a banshee that is hung up against the wall and a whale that is standing on a podium. All the animals in the sculpture were based on creatures in the movie “Avatar: The Way of the Water.” “Straight teeth” was another piece entered by Richmond, which was a painting of her own teeth, although it did not place.
Following is the list of all the PHS students that placed:
Ninth Grade Winners:
3rd place – “Shenron” made by Phillip Sabajan
10th Grade Winners:
1st place – “Creatures of Pandora” made by Willow Richmond
2nd place – “Oasis of Verde” made by Emily Williamson
3rd place – “Liam Gallagher (Biblical)” made by Delaney Snodgrass
11th Grade Winners:
3rd place – “Lady Rose Dagger and Garden Cup of Beauty” made by Gracie Snider
12th Grade Winner:
3rd place – “Blue Tongued Skink” made by Lauren Smith
Best in Show
“Shattered” made by Lauren Smith
