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Two NS students, junior Ethan Ostraff and senior Ben Fryer, were selected to participate in the Springville Art Show, which opened on Saturday, February 6 and will continue throughout the month of March.
The show is an annual display that is strictly for high school students in Utah hosted by the Springville Art Museum. The participant positions for this particular show are limited. In fact, out of one thousand entries, only three hundred students are chosen to display their art. Of those three hundred, forty receive an award, and twenty-five are given the opportunity to participate in a traveling art show.
The application process begins at a local level. Applicants send their preferred piece to their art teacher. In Ostraff’s and Fryer’s case, this was NS art teacher Paul Allred. Allred chose five students art pieces from NS to be judged by Snow College.
Once the pieces moved on from the local level, the Snow College art teachers then judged all the qualifying pieces. They then selected the best pieces of those entries and sent them to the art show. Among those pieces were Fryer’s and Ostraff’s art.
“It’s really cool to know that people think your artwork is good enough to be selected for something like this,” said Ostraff.
Not only did Fryer and Ostraff get selected for the art show, but they also were two of the twenty-five students selected to participate in the travelling show, which goes around to several different places in the state over the course of one year.
“It really makes the work worth it to know that people think your artwork is one of the top in the state,” said Fryer.
Ostraff also received one of the forty awards given.
“It’s nice to be able to put hard work in and to be able to get an honorable mention for it,” said Ostraff.
Ostraff and Fryer each entered a different style of art. Ostraff entered a monoprint, while Fryer entered in the photography category.
“[The photograph] was a picture from the top of Notre Dame Cathedral looking down on the people,” Fryer said.
While Fryer’s photograph uses mellow tones of blues, grays, and blacks, Ostraff’s monoprint uses bold colors.
The piece is a yellow background with little specks of red and orange dotted throughout it. On top of the yellow, there are six cross-like shapes that are created using whites, blacks, creams, reds, and dull yellows.
Both Fryer and Ostraff were able to attend the show on opening day. They were able to observe other students’ art, as well as see their own art displayed.
“There was a lot of people [at the show] and it was really nice to just observe and enjoy the atmosphere,” said Ostraff.
In order to be selected for something as big as the Springville Art Show, motivation is a must. Both Ostraff and Fryer said that they like to be able to create things that are interesting, beautiful, and full of expression. But for them, the most important principle of art is to enjoy it.
“[Making art] is just kind of for fun, and if it happens to end up looking good in the process, then that’s great too,” said Fryer.
The biggest motivator for both Ostraff and Fryer had behind them was their families.
“My whole family is artists, so I was kinda born into doing art,” said Ostraff.
Regardless of how they got started, or why they continue to make art, Ostraff and Fryer’s participation in the Springville Art Show is an experience that they were excited to have, and one they won’t forget.
