MCS takes 3rd place at OVA 2013!

 31st Annual New York State Olympics of the Visual Arts

April 23, 2013

Sponored by NYSATA (New York State Art Teacher's Association)

In the High School area, Margaretville went with two teams this year.  Rhiannon K. entered in the Painting division.  Alana M., Chelsea S., Issis O., and Lindsay D. entereted in the Drawing division.  Each category has a Creative Problem that the students have worked on for month.  They take it to the Olympics and then solve a Spontaneous Problem at the site, having only an hour and a half.  The judging takes place by Professors of Art, Art Teachers, Professional Artists, and Pratt Students.  The judging comprises of the Long-term problem, the Spontaneous problem, and their process shown in their sketchbook.

This year the Painting category was tough.  The problem was to paint a portrait which displays mystery to the viewer. Rhiannon painted a lovely painting, of a woman with a half hidden face.  She worked hard for many months and her painting looked great with all of the others.  In the end she had a professional painter spend ten minutes with her giving her tips and telling her what she did well.

The Drawing category had to portray "The Herd Mentality".   Alana was the mastermind of the project and then asked a few girls to join her.  She chose to illustrate "Sheeple".  In the drawing the sheep are leaving the quiet farms and entering the city.  They slowly morph into standing sheep and end up looking like spaced-out workers carrying brief cases.  There are lots of little secrets and hidden quotes.  It's quite a piece.  There were a lot of amazing drawings and there were about twenty high school teams competing.  We were pleasantly surprised to win third place! The girls were ecstatic! They ran to the stage to receive their ribbons.  It was so exciting.  Their work is on display at school in the main Hallway and we hope to display them in the community.

Miss Dietz, the Pre-K Art teacher, took a middle school group for Fashion Design. They also did a fantastic job and came away with third place as well.  It was an exciting day for Margaretville! What was wonderful was the fact that most of these schools are large, with big art departments and different kinds of budgets.  It was amazing to see that Margaretville is at the same level.