2022 MAEA Recognitions Exhibit

Davis Publications: Drawing
Organization or School Affiliation: Falmouth High School

Student Name: Nya Furey
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: I made the piece to bring attention to the effects of climate change on Cape Cod’s environment. Climate change directly causes more violent storms to occur more frequently across the globe. This pen w/watercolor is based on a photograph I took during a Nor’easter, of a crow perched on top of a freshly broken pitch pine.

Davis Publications: Mixed Media
Organization or School Affiliation: Cardinal Spellman High School

Student Name: Caroline Williams
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: My piece, “Woven In, Stitched Tight”, symbolizes the effect my grandmother has had on shaping my identity. She taught me how to sew as a child, and the skills she taught me and the memories we shared will be with me forever. For this piece, I used the fabric she gifted me, and I stitched it into a self-portrait.

Davis Publications: Painting
Organization or School Affiliation: Pentucket Regional Middle and High School

Student Name: Abigail Stearns
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This oil painting was done on a medium sized canvas over the course of a few weeks. The details in the gloves capture the first thing babies experience when they enter the world, setting up a life where medical professionals will guide them to health. Doctors dedicate their lives to keeping the public healthy, starting with babies, and deserve recognition; especially after these past couple years.

Davis Publications: Photography
Organization or School Affiliation: Somerset Berkley Regional High School

Student Name: Isabella Hines
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: I am attracted to places that are left behind, falling apart or in disrepair. In this image I show a neglected place that is filled with light and shadow. The interplay between light and dark and the repetition of lines in space leads our eye through the photograph, and also leads us to question who or what once inhabited the building. What evidence can we find to see a glimpse into the past?

Davis Publications: Printmaking
Organization or School Affiliation: Falmouth High School

Student Name: Casey McGowan
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: During quarantine, I was unable to leave my comfort zone artistically to try new things, mostly limited to the materials I had at home. Now that I am finally back in the art studio, I can reach beyond my abilities and try something new. Printmaking is something I had never attempted before, and I found it incredibly challenging, but I am determined to continue practicing with this medium.

Davis Publications: Sculpture
Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Jessica Rodrigues
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: The miniature is inspired by the meal I would share every morning with my grandparents as a child when I visited Cape Verde. Creating my piece was enjoyable since I had to mix the colors of the modeling magic by hand. The plates and utensils are shaped from hot glue and the table is made of popsicle sticks. I’m proud of the accuracy of the color and shape of the cuscuz with cinnamon.

Davis Publications: Sculpture
Organization or School Affiliation: Swampscott High School

Student Name: Sofia Comfort
Grade: Grade 10
Artist Statement: My family has a yearly tradition of mushroom hunting together in the Spanish Mountains, with my grandfather who is a passionate forager. It is a magical experience that always teaches me about patience and family bonds. This evolving memory inspired my deconstructed mushroom, which is made from a combination of clay, glaze, twine, and sticks, with sgraffito and carving techniques as well.

Organization or School Affiliation: Weston high school

Student Name: Erhong Gao
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: The "Wind Chime" is the third work in my "Life Project", the project aims to create a scene or place that is just for me, a place where I feel calm, safe and relaxed and able to escape from reality. In this work, I applied the Japanese Style, and this work reflects the feeling of tranquility because of the natural surroundings and natural lighting. The typical Japanese wind chime symbolizes calm.

Organization or School Affiliation: Weston high school

Student Name: Maya Iskoz
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: The background of this piece is paper I made, the hand is test prints from a woodcut, and the ‘blood’ is wood shavings from it. A cut from my hand slipping while I was carving inspired the composition. This moment caused me to reflect on why I continue to make art if it’s painful at times, and the best answer I’ve come up with is that I just have to make art. The struggle is worth the reward.

Organization or School Affiliation: Lynn Classical High School

Student Name: Katina Hunter
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: This artwork is themed around paranoia. Eyes (especially in large quantities) are a symbol I use to represent the feeling of being watched, I wanted to really push the eye contact in this to make the viewer feel uneasy. Another symbol used is the nosebleed, which is meant to show high pressure that is physically weighing down on you.

Organization or School Affiliation: Lynn Classical High School

Student Name: Na Huynh
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This is a digital piece featuring Iphigenia and Clytemnestra, two characters from Ancient Greek tragedies. Clytemnestra reaches out towards Iphigenia, refusing to let her go, as her daughter is being grabbed towards her demise. The flowers around them are hyacinths and lilies, both which symbolize sadness, and the three blades around Iphigenia signal her doom and fate of being sacrificed.

Organization or School Affiliation: Lynn Classical High School

Student Name: Fatima Al-Abbasi
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This piece is of three different times and identities of the same person and their struggle figuring out what they want to be, battling against the truths they've grown up on. The illustration features unsettling images of obscure, uncanny-like faces to create an uncomfortable feeling similar to that of an internal religious battle.

Organization or School Affiliation: Uxbridge High School

Student Name: Alan Mages
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: I was inspired by a puzzle I have. It's a sunset with trees and all the branches connect. So I imagined a collage-like that, but all the branches are offset and don’t connect because the images stack. I started the college in the middle with the sun because I knew the bright light would capture the eye of the viewer and then I could build the rest of the scene around that point.

Organization or School Affiliation: Fontbonne the Early College of Boston

Student Name: Maggie Smith
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: I chose to express the overwhelming emotions a teenager sometimes feels. I expressed the need to be alone, and having the water wash away that emotion. The shower is a place where a lot of people seek shelter to make themselves vulnerable, and can often be the only time alone a teenager can get. I wanted to capture that moment of vulnerability and finding peace in their own chaos.

Organization or School Affiliation: Millis High School

Student Name: Krystal Flint
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This was originally just the small canvas at the center called “Listener”, For that I wanted to capture my fear of my actions, words and emotions being trapped in my mind and that I am only a passive listener in my life. But I extended the piece beyond that. I had wanted to blame my passivity, fear and silence on beings outside of our reality or maybe even god, when all I have to blame is myself.

Organization or School Affiliation: Millis High School

Student Name: Cynthia Arguijo
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: This piece began as a way to practice symmetry, and evolved into an experimentation of bright colors and abstract portraits. I used my own reflection as a reference, but let the drawing develop on its own without the pressure of resembling a specific face. The judging eyes around the subject indicate anxiety from not only being observed by everyone else, but also one's own self-judgment.

Organization or School Affiliation: Millis High School

Student Name: Emelia Leussis
Grade: Grade 10
Artist Statement: I made a collage with the theme of identity. It’s about the two sides of my brain, the happy, go-lucky, fun side and the sad, anxious, stressed side. I started with just magazine clippings and two pictures of myself. Then I added ball point pen doodles on different parts of the collage. Finally I added acrylic paint flowers and other details.

Organization or School Affiliation: Fontbonne the Early College of Boston

Student Name: Eileen Rezendes
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: The artwork I created depicts a teenage girl in the forefront of the piece looking over her shoulder at the ‘elephant in the room’. While this is usually just a metaphor to describe a problem unaddressed, I decided to illustrate the legs and tail of an actual elephant. I specifically chose to draw a teenager because, as a teenager myself, there’s always drama and problems in high school.

Organization or School Affiliation: Whitman-Hanson Regional High School

Student Name: Kay Pierce
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: The idea of this piece came from searching for the best representation of expression of yourself. As an artist who has been working with multiple different art types, projecting my own style is necessary. It also peaks others interest in me as an artist. People are drawn to bright colors and use of good self expression, which helps other people learn how to be more comfortable in themselves.

Organization or School Affiliation: Whitman-Hanson Regional High School

Student Name: Mikayla Horton
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: We all have insecurities and this drawing is a reflection of mine. By covering my face, I am covering my insecurities.