Fall 2021 Student Art Contest Winners for OBOC's book of the year, The Marrow Thieves
1st Place: Isac Morales, Deep into Your Roots
Drawing
2nd Place: Bryan Pena Madrigal, Las Nubes de Mis Raices
Painting
3rd Place: Melanie Zuniga, Prompt 2, Passage 1
Artist Statement-Isac Morales, Student VVC
When I had first received drawings from older people I always noticed these old statues or native warriors and stone carvings in their drawings. To them, it symbolized something else, but to me it was an invite to look, read and discover my culture. Along with that came a love to draw and study my background and what my ancestors lives were about. From the eagle with a snake in its mouth to the headdress on the Aztec and his face paint. These images represent my culture. Whatever culture you might find yourself in, you will find interesting motives, love, stories and pride that reside with your culture.
Artist Statement-Bryan Pena Madrigal, Student VVC
I chose Prompt 1 for the realization of my artwork. I decided to capture my roots through a conceptual painting where I painted the representative things of the state where I was born. I grew up in La Piedad, located in Michoacan, Mexico, where I lived for 17 years of my life. My painting contains figurative elements of where I am, like the monarch butterfly, the corn that is greatly important in my culture. Add the main building in my city for its beautiful architecture. The top part of my painting talks about the history, the memories, the people who died, and the memories that only exist in my memory. The lines and details of the clouds are typical of my style since I consider that the perfect definition of beauty is the clouds due to their abstract shape that we shape without having it.
Artist Statement-Melanie Zuniga, Student VVC
I used this chance to not only display my art but to challenge my creativity by taking the novel, The Marrow Thieves, and turning Chapter 2 "The Fire", into an artwork with the description of the setting given by a character names Miig. Ever since I was a kid, I always found dreams fascinating, and I wanted to give my own adaptions of what dreams would look like. During the making of this artwork, I had the idea of making some pattern styles inspired by the artwork of Indigenous culture, which is one of the major elements in the novel. My family and I love sharing the different dreams we have, especially during the night when we are outside under a clear sky of stars.
Fall 2020 Student Art Contest Winners for OBOC's book of the year, Washington Black
1st Place: Emily Garcia, Silence is Betrayal
Digital Art
2nd Place: Mina Ogawa,Meeting in the Ocean
Mixed Media
3rd Place: Madison Freeman, Peace and Patience
Drawing
Artist Statement-Emily Garcia, Student VVC
I've used this opportunity to express my creativity with art and made this piece to give awareness of the national issues we are facing involving police brutality and the BLM movements in America. Especially given the circumstances that have transpired this year, I want my piece to show a message of what the African American community goes through and still having to face within the eyes of those who don't want to stand by and use their voices for justice and change.
Artist Statement - Mina Ogawa, Student VVC
Art is a language beyond language, that I can share invisible feelings and ideas. I believe everyone is born as a blank sheet of paper, to color their own life and oneself. In this drawing, I wanted to represent a moment when someone is deeply impressed. The world is a palette full of colors. Every encounter and discovery, whether expected or unexpected, makes our life colorful. Any encounter is special and wonderful. It lets us learn, gives confidence, and makes us stronger.
Artist Statement - Madison Freeman, Student VVC
My inspiration partially came from a previous artwork I have done in which showed the beauty in the darkness. I focused on the beginning of the prompt because I connected with it, that death is not a scary event and that there is peace with death and reincarnation. Most people associate death with darkness so I choose to give the artwork an ethereal feeling while incorporating the obscureness by using charcoal. I chose to use this style because I felt that it emphasized the beauty of death.
Faculty Art Contributions
Artwork for The Marrow Thieves
Artwork for Washington Black
Adventure of a lifetime, 9x11 inches (Ink pen, watercolor, chalk on Bristol board)
Notes in the lab, 9x11 inches (Ink pen, watercolor, chalk on Bristol board)
Artist Statement-Christopher Rowland, Art Faculty VVC
After reading some of the text from Washington Black, the main character reminded me of a time in my own life when I was traveling the world…to remote locations from the mountains of Macedonia to the Serengeti in Africa. In the book Wash, would use his sketchbook to document some of the experiments of the scientist as well as the locations of their travels and adventures; that is where I connected. In my own travels, I always carried a sketchbook. Drawing inspiration from my surroundings, I would illustrate what I saw and wrote down how I felt at the time. The illustrations created in response to Washington Black were done in a style as if I were there alongside… inspired by the same spirit of adventure and documenting everything.
Nova Scotia Beach 5x7 inches (Graphite on toned paper)
Morocco Desert 5x7 inches (Graphite on toned paper)
Plantation Barbados 5x7 inches (Graphite on toned paper)
Amsterdam Windmill 5x7 inches (Graphite on toned paper)
Artist Statement - Anna-Marie Veloz, Art Faculty, VVC
As an art instructor, I was influenced by the vivid descriptions of place, in Washington Black. I chose to depict some of the sites Wash traveled to including, Amsterdam, the beach of Nova Scotia, the Morocco desert and lastly the Sugarcane Plantation in Barbados.
Emancipation Begins in the Mind 30 x22”(Watercolor and pencil). The enslaved are represented against the Green color of the sugarcane fields. The figure with upraised arms is the Emancipation Statue on Barbados today
Where is Freedom? , 15 x 11” (Watercolor and pen), shows a person standing on a cliff overlooking the Atlanta, as Wash did in his travels to Nova Scotia. The question is asked, “Where is Freedom?”
Like the Phoenix, and Still I Rise, 18 x 24” (Watercolor, pen and color pencil), features the slave revolt executed in the burning of the sugarcane fields on several plantations.
Bussa Slave Revolt, 1816, Barbados
Artist’s Statement - Theresa D Polley-Shellcroft, Art Faculty, VVC
As an art history instructor, I see art within its historical, cultural context. My three works of art for this event and as they relate to the book about Washington Black’s search for freedom, I needed to know the historical background and context.
The slave revolt events on Barbados as well as the main character, Wash, recall my family history. In 1850, my great, great, grandfather, Harrison Polly (Polley) , along with 8 siblings, were kidnapped from Ohio and sold into slavery in Kentucky and Virginia (now West Virginia). At that time, he was nine years old. His father, Peyton Polly (Polley), my great, great, great, grandfather, filed a lawsuit in the State of Ohio, backed by the governor and prominent abolitionists, to retrieve the children. Fast forward, 2012, our family, with the leadership of my cousin, James Hale, reopened the unsettled case from 1854. It was then ruled that at the time of their kidnapping, Harrison Polly and all siblings were free persons. Not runaways as was claimed in 1850 by the slave catchers.
Freedom is the common thread. How is Freedom defined and understood? Obtained?
I elected to focus on the enslaved person’s revolt of 1816 on several Barbados sugarcane plantations. In the three art works, I chose to give voice and to honor those millions of enslaved persons, who were kidnapped and/or sold into slavery, by acknowledging their struggle for Freedom. Too often, these stories are overlooked in history.