Many Lessons Learned While Creating Award-Winning Art
While working on her first-prize-winning video in Shoreline Arts Alliance’s Future Choices competition, Sarah Conroy learned a lot about cinematography, animation, camera work, writing, and other aspects of the craft. The year-long project was done with the help of about 30 others—including students, teachers, and family members—so it also reinforced lessons about teamwork. Conroy says she also learned she is capable of being a creative person.
“And I learned a lot about myself,” says Conroy, 18, a senior at Daniel Hand High School in Madison. “By watching the actress, I learned about myself.”
Her film is called A Girl Named May, “an experimental, barely-a-short short film about identity, trust, and isolation. Also other random things.”
Tessa Williams, a 15-year-old sophomore from Haddam Killingworth High School who lives in Killingworth, learned that working with a new printing technique can be confusing. And then she realized that sometimes “you just have to go for it and put your mark down.” As soon as she did that, she began to see her way through the confusion to create a first-prize-winning entry in the print division.
For Falyn Freitas, a 14-year-old freshman who attends the Greater Hartford Arts Academy, creating a self-portrait in pastels, a new medium for her, gave her the courage to make mistakes that she could easily move beyond, just by putting down another layer. The first prize-winning work portrays a young woman with considerable self confidence. Frietas says she doesn’t always feel that self confident, but “while I was [working on the self-portrait], I could feel myself becoming more confident. It helped me see the good in myself.”
While discussing her work with a reporter, filmmaker Conroy says she learned one other thing. Taking the reporter’s notebook and writing down the names of her collaborators (Petra Sestan, Gaby Dollahite, Jackson Anselmo, Sam Stein, Lilly D’Ancicco, and Jake Beiner among many others), she says she learned “I will be friends with these people for life.” She then headed out the door to work on another project with her collaborators.
The winning entries in the Future Choices exhibition will be on display at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Sill House Gallery, 84 Lyme Street, Old Lyme through Tuesday, March 5. For more hours and more information, call the college at 860-434-5232 or the Guilford-based Shoreline Arts Alliance 203-453-3890
Best in Show
Annie Cooper — Valley Regional High School
Ceramics
First Place: Annie Cooper — Valley Regional High School
Second Place: Kelli Schaefer — Valley Regional High School
Third Place: Rebecca Conti — Haddam-Killingworth High School
Drawing
First Place: Anna Mercier — Haddam-Killingworth High School
Second Place: Angela Agnello — Guilford High School
Third Place: Kristina McNeish — Old Saybrook High School
Mixed Media
First Place: Peter Santaro — Daniel Hand High School
Second Place: Gabriella Dollahite — Daniel Hand High School
Third Place: Hannah Johnson — Valley Regional High School
Painting
First Place: Sarah Conley — Lyme-Old Lyme High School
Second Place: Sophia Irzyk — Branford High School
Third Place: Dvora Redlich — Daniel Hand High School
Pastel
First Place: Falyn Freitas — Greater Hartford Academy for the Arts
Second Place: Jessica Stanwood — Coginchaug Regional High School
Photography:
First Place: Jillian Jacek — Coginchaug Regional High School
Second Place: Eric C. Dillner — Daniel Hand High School
Third Place: Kamryn Surprenant — Daniel Hand High School
Prints
First Place: Tessa Wills — Haddam-Killingworth High School
Second Place: Emily Bagnoli — Haddam-Killingworth High School
Third Place: Jane Scheiber — Lyme Old Lyme High School
Sculpture
First Place: Edward Lenz — Valley Regional High School
Second Place: Zoe Smith — Haddam-Killingworth High School
Third Place: Carter Shannon — Branford High School
Video
First Place: Sarah Conroy — Daniel Hand High School
Second Place: Kaitlyn MacCullum — Daniel Hand High School
Third Place: Liz Schroeder — Daniel Hand High School
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts Awards
Earl Grenville Killeen Founders Award: Maryann Donagher — Valley Regional
High School
Judy Streeter Outstanding School Award: Art Department of Daniel Hand
High School
Ruth Baxter-Tagliatela Award: Aexandra Burke — Nathan Hale-Ray High School
Jurors for 2019
Whitney Lorenze, Painter, Guilford
Joan McPherson, Painter, Madison
John Tintori, American Film Editor and Director, New York City
Mark Battista, Photographer, North Haven
Alice Chittenden, Sculpture, Guilford