A Visual Feast celebrates student art

A Visual Feast celebrates student art

Eighth-grader Jolie Widamen from Skyview Middle School can’t draw, can’t paint and is definitely not artistic, or at least that’s what she told her mom, Jill DuFloth.

“She’s always the kid saying she can’t do this, can’t do that, that she isn’t artistic at all,” DuFloth said Thursday at Visual Feast, an art show at Kenai Fine Arts Center that brings together art created by students from across the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. The annual event awards students for their pieces and this year, Jolie brought home Best in Show for the middle school division. “It’s great to come to the show, see her award and say, ‘Look! You are artistic.”’

Jolie’s piece is a technicolor cow, created by carving a rubber block and stamping down. Pieces in the show cover a broad spectrum of mediums, including painting, sculpture, ceramics and mixed media. Throughout the school year, Jolie explored the different mediums in class and her winning piece, she said, was a continuation of a theme.

“All quarter long I was doing barnyard animals for our different projects,” Jolie said. “I really wanted to do a cow, and it’s pretty cool because I didn’t expect to get an award at all.”

Many of the students, who come from both middle and high schools, had no idea they were being honored for their work because just having a piece on display in the show is an accomplishment on its own. Art teachers from the different schools nominated pieces from their classes for display. Before Thursday’s opening reception, local community members chose top pieces in each category and a best in show.

“I didn’t think I was going to win anything,” said Kenai Central High School student Dulce Santana of her first place photography award. “I went to Mexico City and had an F in Mr. Morton’s art class because of that, so I took a lot of photos on the trip to change that.”

Santana said she was excited that the trip let her explore her passion for photography and that she’s “hopefully not” failing the class anymore.

The show will be on display at the Kenai Fine Arts Center at 816 Cook Drive in Kenai through the end of the month.

Reach Kat Sorensen at ksorensen@peninsulaclarion.com

A Visual Feast celebrates student art
A Visual Feast celebrates student art
A Visual Feast celebrates student art
A Visual Feast celebrates student art

More in News

Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion
Brad Snowden and Julie Crites participate in a Seward City Council candidate forum at the Seward Community Library in Seward on Thursday.
Seward council candidates discuss issues at election forum

Participating in Thursday’s forum were Julie Crites and Brad Snowden

Cam Choy, associate professor of art at Kenai Peninsula College, works on a salmon sculpture in collaboration with the Kenai Watershed Forum during the Kenai River Festival at Soldotna Creek Park in Soldotna, Alaska, on June 8, 2019. (Peninsula Clarion file)
Soldotna adopts arts and culture master plan

The plan outlines how the city plans to support arts and culture over the next 10 years

Architect Nancy Casey speaks in front of a small gathering at the Fireside Chat presented by the Kenai Watershed Forum on Nov. 30, 2022, at Kenai River Brewing in Soldotna, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai Watershed Forum’s Fireside Chats return Wednesday

The chats will cover a range of interesting topics, centered on knowledge, research and projects

Erosion of the Kenai bluff near the Kenai Senior Center. (Photo by Aidan Curtin courtesy Scott Curtin)
Kenai to sign bluff stabilization agreement Monday

A signing event will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Kenai Senior Center

Engineer Lake Cabin can be seen in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on Nov. 21, 2021. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Public comment accepted for proposed rate increases for overnight fees at refuge

Campsites would increase $5 per night and cabins would increase $10 per night

Abigal Craig, youth winner of the Seventh Annual Kenai Silver Salmon Derby, is presented a novelty check by Kenai River Sportfishing Association Executive Director Shannon Martin, City of Kenai Mayor Brian Gabriel, and Kenai Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Samantha Springer at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Silver Salmon Derby nets fish, funds for river protection

116 fish were weighed by 79 anglers across the six days of competition

Soldotna Public Works Director Kyle Kornelis talks about the Soldotna field house project during a Soldotna City Council meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Soldotna awards field house contract

Anchorage-based Criterion General, Inc. will construct the facility

Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche testifies before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly during a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Assembly to let borough mayors speak sooner during meetings

The mayor’s report will now be given after the first round of public comments and before public hearings and new assembly business

Assembly members Lane Chesley, left, and Richard Derkevorkian participate in a borough assembly meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Haara/Peninsula Clarion)
Assembly asks state to allow term limits for school board members

Alaska Statute does not allow term limits to be imposed on school board members

Most Read