(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Yena Jang, of Olympus High, works with charcoal as she competes with 50 of the top student artists from Granite School District. High-schoolers created artwork during a live-art competition at Taylorsville High in late January. Students from eight high schools had four hours to produce a masterpiece out of materials ranging from clay to stained glass to acrylic paint.

High-schoolers put creativity to the test, on a timer

Student Art Night » Artists compete for prizes in drawing, sculpting, painting, more.

By Jon Clifford

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Feb 16 2012 10:14 am • Last Updated Feb 16 2012 10:14 am

Taylorsville » Fernanda Aguirre didn’t choose art as much as art chose her.

"I hated drawing — hated it. Whenever we had an assignment where we had to draw something, I hated it," said Aguirre, a Kearns High junior who remembers when she couldn’t draw a stick figure "to save my life."

That changed two years ago when she unmasked her hidden talent by drawing a portrait of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

"I got an A-plus-plus on it, and everyone thought it was amazing," she said. "My parents think I’m crazy because I just randomly started one day."

Aguirre was one of 52 high-schoolers selected to compete in the Granite School District’s Student Art Night last month. Students transformed the Taylorsville High cafeteria into a massive studio, from which they produced drawings, paintings, wire sculptures, stained glass and ceramic pieces.

"I came last year just to observe," recalled Aguirre, who penciled a portrait of a child. "I walked in and was like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever.’ And here I am doing it. You’ll see me here next year, too."

The event, organized by the Granite Education Foundation, puts a timer on the creative process, giving artists just four hours to create their masterpieces from scratch. Students competed for cash prizes in several different categories.

Granger High’s Quynh Tram Pham took home the $150 first prize in the overall two-dimensional competition. The overall 3-D champ was Cyprus High’s Caleb Gee. Olympus High’s Rachel Pinnock’s oil painting earned the People’s Choice award, and 19 other students were recognized for their work.

Painter Al Rounds was one of five judges who spoke to the students before the competition to prepare them for working under a tight deadline.

"This is really an unusual thing, to have these art students competing against each other like in a football game," said Rounds, who has been a judge in each of the event’s nine years. "The whole thing is so healthy for them. It’s really amazing what they can do.

"It may not seem like it’s a creative process, but it is," Rounds continued. "In my personal career, when I have ideas that come to fruition and I end up spending all night just cranking on it and can’t stop, they end up being my best pieces."

Cyprus High’s Austin James Batchelor said he had plenty of time to create his mixed-media submission of a lion with a mane of serpents glued onto a painted wood panel.

"I forgot to bring a clock, so I’m just kind of going with it," the senior said. "I’m more worried about finishing early and sitting around and having the judges think I didn’t work too hard."

Aguirre was not quite as calm at the outset.

"When I started, I was shaking," she said. "The lines on my grid are probably crooked."

Most at the painting and drawing tables listened to music through earphones, using pictures as the inspiration behind their work. One worked off an image displayed on her iPad.

In the ceramics corner, 14 pottery wheels whirled as artists sat nearly shoulder-to-shoulder working the clay. The ceramics contestants were required to create four pieces, which, according to Olympus High’s Brittany Seljaas, was plenty of time.

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