The Campbell Reporter

Education

Olympiad of the Arts recognizes students

By Emilie Doolittle

I t's said that civilization develops where there are artists. But in the Silicon Valley, where there is a strong emphasis on technology and learning about math and science, the arts tend to elude us.

More than half a century ago, the Olympiad of the Arts was created to encourage students in Santa Clara County to study and grow in the arts. Olympiad awards ceremonies were held at Villa Montalvo as early as 1928, and the tradition continued at West Valley College under the auspices of the WVC Foundation in 1978.

This year, 52 local student artists received recognition for their submissions to the Olympiad and more than $7,800 in prizes was awarded in visual arts, photography and creative writing.

Niamh McGinley, a senior at Saratoga High School, took first place in the traditional forms, poetry contest for her sonnet, "Words and Wine," where she demonstrated her own literary ripeness by comparing the process of writing poetry with turning grapes into wine.

"It's a gorgeous poem," said her poetry teacher, Judith Sutton, who encouraged submission of the poem. "I knew it was a winner poem."

Another senior from the high school, Sarah Rainville, took first place in the free-verse contest for her entry, "Heartbeats," a short poem with detailed imagery and excellent diction.

"Sarah is an outstanding writer," Sutton said. "She is very, very creative. It's been a joy to teach her."

Both Sarah and Niamh have been published in adult literary journals. Sutton encourages all of her poetry students to submit their work to literary journals. Even if they get rejected, she wants to expose them to the profession of writing.

Sutton has urged her students to submit their work to the Olympiad for years. "In terms of a high school contest, you'll never find anything better than the Olympiad of the Arts."

The Olympiad also honored students in the category for visual art. Alex Skubis, a senior at Los Gatos High School, took second place in the category for submitting a ceramic, 1-foot by 2-inch fish with giant black eyes. "It looks really funny and crazy at the same time," Alex said. During his creative process, the artist had no desire to prove anything. He just created what his instinct told him.

Alex has taken ceramics with art teacher Ralph Aguayo for the past three years. "He's an amazing man," Alex said. "He's multitalented. He's a great teacher. He pays a lot of attention to detail and inspires me to create better work."

"Alex is a very creative young man," Aguayo said. "He loves art and he loves drawing. He's done a great job in ceramics. He's original in his designs."

Sylvia Smith, a senior at Prospect, took second place in photography. She took a still life photo of a yellow daffodil in a blue vase. The photo shows a gradual shift in color from the white background to the yellow daffodil, causing a soft halo around the flower.

Sylvia's photography teacher Ron Garcia said, "Her work was studio portraiture. I thought she composed it nicely. I think that Sylvia has come a long way. She's willing to take critiques and be persistent and improve upon her work."

Claire Hwang, also from Prospect, took first place in the fiction writing contest, for her story "No Return."

"She's really modest," said the head of the English department, Georgiana Hays. "She doesn't go out and seek competition." Hays had to convince Claire to submit her work.

Modest as usual, Claire preferred not to comment on her work. Perhaps she took to heart Oscar Wilde's words: "To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim."

Nevertheless Claire's artwork, as well as all the other winning entries, will be posted to the Olympiad's website at www. olympiadofthearts.org.