EKL competitions are commonly associated with sports, but yesterday the art department at BVNW participated in an EKL competition unlike others.

The art department in each of the Blue Valley schools, as well as Bishop Miege, Gardner Edgerton and St. Thomas Aquinas, brought ten students and 30 pieces of art to Blue Valley High School yesterday to compete in Art EKL.

According to art teacher Chris LaValley, Art EKL came about when Gardner Edgerton joined the Blue Valley division and approached the other schools about starting the competition.  

“There’s a lot of group competitions, so they’re learning how to work together in a group, how to kind of solve a problem,” LaValley said. “I think it’s good, also, for their self-confidence, being chosen not only to go, but to have one of their artworks, it’s very competitive.”

Senior Mallory Iszard has attended Art EKL the past two years, as a sophomore and a junior. Both years she competed in painting. Her sophomore year, Iszard placed second, her junior year she placed first.

According to Iszard, preparation for the competitions begins beforehand. Each category of the competitions has themes, and for some categories the themes are announced ahead of time, and others the participants do not know the themes their pieces must incorporate until the day of the competition.

“Sometimes, like in collaborative drawing, they already give us a theme, and [this year] it’s what the perspective is through the eyes of an artist through your school…and that’s one thing we already have our ideas for that,” Iszard said. “But,,,this paper idea, they haven’t given us a topic so we have to think about that when we get there, we just kind of have to…come up with ideas that are more flexible to go along with other ideas.”

According to LaValley, the competition consists of different categories and competitions. This year the categories that will be judged are drawing, painting, computer generated art, various media, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, textiles and photography. Throughout the day, the students competed as groups in the different challenges: costume/fashion show, collaborative paper installation, figure drawing and art history as the judges evaluated and scored the 30 pieces of art that were brought in.

According to LaValley, the hardest part about preparing for Art EKL is deciding the 30 pieces of art that are brought to the show to be judged.

“[The art teachers] had [the potential art pieces] all laid out during late arrival to choose and it was difficult,” LaValley said. “There were some where it was like, ‘Ok, we only have three spots left and six pieces here, how do we decide which three pieces of these?’ So, …I think it’s just a good confidence booster, it gives them a chance to feel like what they do is just as important as other EKL things, like sports.”

Junior Olivia Haston went to Art EKL for the first time this year. Her piece was one of the 30 pieces selected to be judged.

“To be in EKL you have to be chosen by the teacher and have the right skill set and stuff, and so I guess that was really exciting for Mrs. LaValley to chose me and so it’s going to be really cool to see all the other high school’s students and all their best art kids,” Haston said.

Senior Payton Pierce also participated for the first time this year at Art EKL, and said she had heard the event is very fun, and expected a unique experience from it.

“I think it’s really going to bring me closer to my art friends and to National Art Honor Society…because everyone who goes to Art EKL is more than likely involved in the Art Honor Society,” Pierce said. “It will just bring us all closer and it will be a really fun experience.”

Pierce said she was excited to see the work of other schools, and thought it would be a learning experience.

“[Art EKL] will be a good warmup for art school and having to get along with other people and do projects together because I’m not really used to that because most of the time we do things on our own here, whereas there you have to work together and it’s cool to see the final outcome,” Pierce said.

Senior Lauren Christie participated in Art EKL last year, and got third place for a textile that was brought to the competition. This year, Christie was the makeup artist for the costume/fashow show, in which two students were dressed up like famous paintings or artists.

“We actually get up super bright and early to do it, so it’s a huge time commitment,” Christie said. “The hardest part is probably…that you have to be so reliable. The first competition we have starts at 8:00 and then the competition starts right away, so I probably have to get up around like 5:30-6:00 because I’m doing makeup for a runway competition we’re doing.”

Local artist and associate professor at the Kansas City Art Institute, Brett Reif, was one of the four judges that were asked to evaluate and rank the pieces of art brought in by each of the schools. According to Reif, he looks for the pieces that are compelling, attractive and technically proficient.

“There’s a couple of, I think, important standards. One would be technical proficiency. How skilled is the young artist at technically dealing certain things, with pencil, with a paintbrush, with clay, depending on the medium…” Reif said. “The other important trait would be expression and invention. How is the young artist able to use art as a tool for self expression? So, can I see who they are, what they think, what they feel through the decisions that they’re making, and are their decisions sincere and novel, and that would be inventive and that’s an important trait to look for in a young artist.”

According to Pierce and LaValley, the competitions are a good opportunity for students to see what work other schools are doing around the district. Reif said he often takes advantage of opportunities such as Art EKL.

“When I’m ever invited to do these things I jump at the chance, just because it gives me the opportunity to see who our next generation of talented artists are going to be,” Reif said.  

Here are the results from yesterday’s competition:

Overall: BVNW placed third

Competitions:

Selfie – 2nd place

Art History – 2nd place

Ribbons: (Purple – 15 points, blue – 10 points, Red – five points, White – two points)

Emily Albers (11) “The Seventh Sense” – White (Computer Generated)

Lainey Birnbaum (11) “Wanderlust” – White (Painting)

Emily Bradford (11) “Prismatic” – White (Painting)

Emily Fisher (11) “Open Wide” – White (Drawing)

Jay Li (12) “Journey” – Red (Sculpture)

Sophia Maher (9) “London” – Blue (Painting)

Mallorie McBride (12) “Blue” – Blue (Photography)

Connor Munsch (9) “Into the Light” – White (Photography)

Gabrielle Orozco (12) “In Pursuit” – Blue (Drawing)

Payton Pierce (12) “Balance” – White (Jewelry)

Mara Roberts (10) “The City Museum in Snow” – White (Computer Generated)

Sophia Sandino (11) “Dusk” – Purple (Computer Generated)

Taryn Thomas (12) “Field Guide” – Blue (Drawing)

Zora Urbanyi (12) “Budapest” – Red (Painting)

Anna Welsh (11) “Flash” – Red (Photography)