Besides the faint sounds of brushes flowing across canvases and pencils lightly scratching the surface of rough sketchbook paper, Charles Berlin’s art room is fairly quiet. The classroom reeks of fumes from pungent acrylic paint and wood as student artists focus on their next work, undeterred. It is in this classroom that students work to attain hundreds of art awards each year. 

Just last year, White Station High School (WSHS) won 148 scholastic awards — more than any other school in Memphis — and dozens of Delta Fair and Mid-South Fair awards. This year is a new beginning in the world of art as the cycle of competitions restarts after a long summer break. Kayla Lam (9), Long Do (11) and Allen Guo (12) have earned recognition in the first two art competitions of the year: the Delta Fair and the Mid-South Fair. Guo won second prize and Best in Show in the Delta Fair for his acrylic painting. He has been painting since he was five years old, and his mother, an art teacher, trained him.

“I’ve always liked to create stuff, and art is one of the more natural ways to express myself that way,” Guo said. “It’s a way you can take your own observations and put them out there. The whole process of making that happen is really beautiful. That’s what I always paint for and do my work for: the process.”

Guo’s award-winning painting depicts a homeless man sitting on a curb in a busy urban center as electronic ads play in the background. Blues dominate the composition, but browns and reds appear subtly in the figure’s skin to contrast the cool tones. The painting is from a series that concentrates on wealth disparities and inequality.

“My original goal [with this painting] was to express the duality of society,” Guo said. “The original photo was from the streets [of] New York, and the thing about New York is that you can see someone destitute asking for money, and across the street … you’ll find designer brands. It’s kind of desensitizing in a way and I kind of wanted to express that.”

Guo uses art as a means of sharing his observations about society, occasionally providing commentary, as he does with his award winning painting and series on wealth. Do has a similar affinity for the process of painting. He occasionally spends weeks on just one painting, working endlessly to get proportions, color and contrast just right. 

“In the beginning, I will do some thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook … and get the general color scheme,” Do said. “For my base sketch, I try to do an underpainting and try to establish the values. I think the finished product [is my favorite part] because when you finish it, you see all the hard work that you’ve been doing.”

As opposed to providing commentary on society, Do uses art to portray his observations about his family and culture. Last year, he created a series about the Vietnamese lifestyle. Do won a gold key recognition in Scholastics for three of his works, one of which was a colored pencil landscape depicting a lush Vietnamese coast with boats floating in the foreground. This year, he won first prize and Best in Show at the Delta Fair for a painting of his father cooking Vietnamese food. The composition features a dramatic worm’s eye view with fire spitting out of the grill in the foreground. Whether it be a landscape or a figurative painting, Do finds ways to connect his art back to his cultural identity.

“I like to paint about my culture to show people about my culture more,” Do said. “I am usually always painting about my family or Vietnam.”

Lam also found success in the first few art competitions of the year. She won first prize in the Mid-South Fair for her colored pencil drawing of a tree that incorporated many vibrant and bright yellows, greens and reds. The most notable element of Lam’s art is her use of bright and vivid colors, which reflects her personality.

“I try to make [the art] very dynamic so I can show the playfulness … [and] youth,” Lam said. “You know how back then it was very colorful and stuff during Y2K? I try to make it like that, because … I just like a lot of color to express myself more.”

Although making art is generally regarded as relaxing, it can be nerve-wracking when it is made to be judged in large-scale competitions like the Mid-South Fair and Delta Fair. Every detail and artistic choice is left to the judgment of the judging panel, who are tasked with making subjective decisions. 

“I heard a lot of artists are perfectionists and I don’t really tend to seek perfection,” Lam said. “I just draw it, and if it doesn’t turn out [well], I just leave it as it is unless I can fix it. No matter how hard I try, it’s not going to be perfect because nothing is perfect.”

Art competitions are regarded in a positive light by many student artists, and Berlin, the AP 2D Art and Design, AP Drawing, and Honors Art 2 teacher, encourages submissions. It gives the artist a chance to display their art and the community a chance to view it. 

“I feel like it’s nice to get some recognition when you’re doing art,” Guo said. “It’s more about the process than the actual award.”

This story was originally published on The Scroll on October 29, 2024.