Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students earned scholarships in the recent Thea Foundation Visual Arts Competition.
Senior Catherine Kwon of Little Rock won first place and a $4,000 scholarship for her piece “Keeping Me, Influencing Me.” Senior Hadley Hooper of Marion won seventh place and a $2,000 scholarship for her piece “Passion, Hope, and Determination.” Senior Takoya Marks of Prescott won 10th place and a $2,000 scholarship for her piece “Shadows.”
The Thea Foundation serves as an advocate for the importance in arts in the development of Arkansas’ youth. The foundation provides assistance and encouragement through scholarship competitions, providing art supplies to educators and students, and professional development training among other activities.
Each of the students said they were surprised and excited to learn they had won scholarships that will help them attend college in the future.
“I got an email from Thea Foundation in the middle of class on Thursday,” Kwon said. “I was in disbelief for a few minutes. I remember rereading the email multiple times. I was really glad that the Thea Foundation scholarship would be enough to cover (and exceed!) all of my student share for my freshman year of college.”
Hooper said she was “thrilled” when she found out. “All of my colleges are expensive, so any financial aid or scholarships help.”
Marks said she had to play it cool when she first found out she had won a scholarship.
“I was very happy when I saw that I placed in Thea; however, I was in class at the time, so I couldn’t show much emotion. I was honestly shocked to see the email, and it brought me so much joy to see the other classmates of mine had also won,” she said.
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Some institutions of higher education will match the scholarships. ASMSA art instructor Brad Wreyford said that dependent on where the students choose to continue their education, the total money earned by the three could be more than $40,000.
“I am so proud of our senior studio class,” Wreyford said, including three other students who participated in the competition but did not place. “Each of them entered amazing pieces. Any one of them could have placed and won. It was a very strong showing.
“Takoya is really coming into her own as an artist. Combining collage and painting, she has developed her own style. Hadley is committed to her craft. Her work is always on time and honed to the smallest detail. Catherine is an amazing representational painter,” he said.
This year’s competition theme was “What it means to be me.” Each of the students said the theme made their choice of what to enter into the competition very personal.
“Since it’s about what makes me, I decided to pick some of my defining traits,” Hooper said. “Hope, passion and determination. I always cling to my passion, which fuels my determination to reach out to that last strand of hope, even in the most grim of situations.”
Marks said the theme led her to make a late change on what piece she decided to submit to the competition.
“The theme was personal, so my inspiration for the piece was myself and my internal emotions,” she said. “I had another piece ready to enter, but one night I felt a jolt of inspiration and created the painting that I submitted. It was beautiful to me, so that’s why I chose it over the other.”
Kwon said her piece reflects many different points in her life.
“I wanted to create a piece based on my experience moving and changing schools frequently, because adaptability and learning is a large part of my identity. My painting represents myself using what I take away from each place I’ve been at to expand my thinking and perspective,” Kwon said.
Sara Henry, who also serves as an art instructor at ASMSA, said the competition provided students an opportunity to combine their talents and emotions in a professional way.
“The Thea Foundation Scholarship Competition offers our students a professional-level competition that is highly regarded as one of the most prestigious exhibitions in Arkansas. Our students confront the challenge, working long hours in their studios to create one-of-a-kind treasures. These works convey a tidal wave emotion and an exemplary understanding of the basic principles of art and design,” she said.
Both Kwon and Hooper plan to continue to take art classes in college while Marks said this experience will help her with her planned major — architecture.
“Art is a form of self-expression for me, so I plan to continue studying it on the side in the future,” Marks said. “My plan is to be an architect, so I hope that my skills in art will prepare me for that, and I hope that the skills I learn while studying architecture will improve my art.”
Kwon said, “I plan to double major in neuroscience and art in college and hopefully go into freelance illustration in the future. To me, art is a method of communication; because I’m a visually oriented person, I enjoy making paintings or drawings that tell a story, whether it’s about myself or others.”
Hooper plans to major in illustration. She hopes her artwork makes an impact on others just as other artists have on her.
“I hope with my drawings, maybe one day I can inspire someone like other artists did for me. For me, the ability to create my own worlds and stories makes it more than fulfilling for me,” she said.
To learn more about the Thea Foundation, visit theafoundation.org.