07 Feb 2012 Morrilton students place in Thea Foundation art competition

Posted at 3:38 PMh in News by

The Thea Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of its 2012 Visual Arts Scholarship Competition for high school seniors and its Visual Arts Competition for high school juniors, which were both finalized by a panel of judges at the Thea Center on Wednesday, Feb. 1.  

Three Morrilton High School students placed in the Top 10 – Tulsi Patel, first place; Austin Benson, fifth place; and Cole Harken, seventh place.

Cole Harken, Tulsi Patel and Austin Benson.

The competitors – 160 seniors and 64 juniors, representing more than 50 Arkansas cities – submitted artworks of any medium based on the theme, “Happy Remembrances of the Holiday Season,” taken from Thea Kay Leopoulos’s journal entry titled, “Christmas.”  

Participants competed for a combined total of $25,000 in scholarships for seniors and $1,000 in cash prizes for juniors, which Thea awards annually in the visual arts category.     

Altered book with self portrait - by Austin Benson.

To show its recognition of the students’ hard work and talent, Thea is exhibiting the winning students’ artworks in Thea’s annual Visual Arts Competition Winners Show, on display Feb. 6 through March 23.

The winners of Thea’s 2012 Visual Arts Scholarship Competition for seniors include:

  • First Place – $4,000 Tulsi Patel Morrilton High School
  • Second Place – $3,500 Valeria Chavez El Dorado High School
  • Third Place – $3,000 Michaela Osborne Bentonville High School
  • Fourth Place – $2,500 Derek Schultz North Little Rock High School
  • Fifth Place – $2,000 Austin Benson Morrilton High School
  • Sixth Place – $2,000 Katie Connelly El Dorado High School
  • Seventh Place – $2,000 Cole Harken Morrilton High School
  • Eighth Place – $2,000 Darren Waddles Mountain View High School
  • Ninth Place – $2,000 Haley Martin Lake Hamilton High School
  • Tenth Place – $2,000 Eun Ha Little Rock Central High School

Acrylic collage - by Cole Harken.

Patel, the first-place finisher, explained her vision behind her art:

“Though I am of Hindu origin, I still see how wonderful the celebration of Jesus’ birthday is. The Christmas holidays traditionally represent spending time with our loved ones. My composition depicts my favorite traditions of the season: watching holiday movies together, adorning the house with festive decorations and heading to bed early in anticipation of Santa.

“The graffiti based composition is divided into two general areas.  A scratchboard self-portrait depicts my thoughts about the season while my hair explodes into marker and colored pencil designs that weave the traditions throughout the composition.  The bright colors chosen reflect who I am, and what better time of the year than Christmas to let my colors shine!”

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