By Jorja Weitl

Winning 30 awards out of 76 is a pretty good result considering the high level of competition the art field has nowadays. “This is Audubon High School's third time entering into the Scholastic Art and Writing contest,” Mrs. Kathy Wallander, the art teacher said. Wallander also said, “I am very proud of the students that entered and who got awards, but there is always disappointments in the ones that didn’t get awards when they should have.”
Scholastic has changed its way of entering from having to send in the artworks physically to now sending them in digitally. Wallander said, ”This is one of the great things they changed. The students can enter as many works as they want. Each entry costs $5, but instead of sending in the physical art piece we just send in pictures so we don’t have to worry about them getting damaged going between places.” Upon seeing the results, Wallander is very pleased for what did win and has confidence in the WIC art contest that is to come this spring. “Having 7 gold key winners, 11 silver key, and 12 honorable mentions is a fantastic achievement. We are lucky to win anything at such a high level of contest, so I am always proud of the students that try and win something in a contest like this because it costs money to enter.”
Shelby Chizek, a junior, was one of the seven students that got a gold key. “It makes me happy inside and somewhat surprised I won a gold key this year," said Chizek. “I entered last year and got an award, but this year winning a gold key for my scratchboard made me really happy. Winning awards from a contest like this really boosts my confidence for the art show this year.”
“Art is all subjective,” Wallander said; “You never know what the outcome will be. One day you could win nothing and then the next day have a set of all new judges and win loads. It all just depends on what they look at in the piece.”
Scholastic has changed its way of entering from having to send in the artworks physically to now sending them in digitally. Wallander said, ”This is one of the great things they changed. The students can enter as many works as they want. Each entry costs $5, but instead of sending in the physical art piece we just send in pictures so we don’t have to worry about them getting damaged going between places.” Upon seeing the results, Wallander is very pleased for what did win and has confidence in the WIC art contest that is to come this spring. “Having 7 gold key winners, 11 silver key, and 12 honorable mentions is a fantastic achievement. We are lucky to win anything at such a high level of contest, so I am always proud of the students that try and win something in a contest like this because it costs money to enter.”
Shelby Chizek, a junior, was one of the seven students that got a gold key. “It makes me happy inside and somewhat surprised I won a gold key this year," said Chizek. “I entered last year and got an award, but this year winning a gold key for my scratchboard made me really happy. Winning awards from a contest like this really boosts my confidence for the art show this year.”
“Art is all subjective,” Wallander said; “You never know what the outcome will be. One day you could win nothing and then the next day have a set of all new judges and win loads. It all just depends on what they look at in the piece.”