In The News: NHS senior Kiernen VandenHoek earns five Gold Keys

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Student honored in drawing and illustration category; two others receive regional Scholastic Art Awards

Newberg High School student Kiernen VandenHoek is no stranger to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a regional and national contest facilitated by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers.

VandenHoek has earned recognition through the program, which is administered in Oregon by the nonprofit organization Little Bird Arts, each of the past three years, winning a national award as a freshman.

Despite such a strong track record, VandenHoek still managed to outdo himself as a senior, earning five Gold Keys for drawing and illustration and an honorable mention in graphic design in the Willamette Valley regional competition.

"It's my last year for submissions because they cap it at senior year," he said. "Last year I worked really hard on my portfolio for AP/College Board submission, so I had some pieces stockpiled from that. I just decided to throw them all in."

All five of VandenHoek's drawings will be displayed at the regional awards exhibition March 6-18 at Oregon State University's LaSells Stewart Center in Corvallis.

Four of VandenHoek's five Gold Key pieces are portraits, including "New kroY ytiC," which is featured on the Willamette Valley regional awards web page (www.littlebirdarts.org/willamette-valley). The piece features a woman's face with the New York City skyline reflected in her sunglasses.

"I've started doing a lot of street photography and shooting the city, so I wanted to incorporate that into my next piece," he said. "I still love nature and being outside, so in the background there are mountains. I wanted to play with that a bit; a clash of two very different things."

Three of his four portraits reference photographs of people he doesn't know, like that of professional photographer Joe Greer's wife, Madison, in "New korY ytiC."

The exception is "Hadely," which depicts a former classmate of VandenHoek's. Her figure mostly in black pencil against a colorful outdoor background, creating a strong contrast.

The lone non-portrait, "Lovely Disarray" depicts a stairwell with a complex pattern of overlapping lines and shadows created by light cast from a nearby window.

VandenHoek also received an honorable mention in graphic design for his piece, "Warm City Nights," which was based on a photograph of New York City, featuring the Empire State Building that he took when attending the national awards banquet as a freshman. He manipulated the photo in several ways, which gives the impression the viewer is looking through several panes of glass.

"I took one piece of it and I doubled it and then made the opacity of it lighter," VandenHoek said. "I did that with multiple parts of the image. I just liked how the lines and shape overlapped and created new shapes."

Also earning recognition in the contest were sophomore Elizabeth Steinbeck and junior James Swindle.

Steinbeck received honorable mention for her drawings of an antelope skull and a clarinet, while Swindle's digital drawings "Hungry" and "Blue Night" were awarded Silver Keys in the digital art category.

Swindle, who hopes to attend art school after high school, has been drawing for pretty much his whole life, but transitioned to digital about five years ago. Both of his images were created with a stylus and the Procreate art app.

"I think it's more fun to draw that way because I can get a bunch of different colors that I couldn't get with markers," Swindle said.

"Hungry" features an African American woman with soda in one hand and a burger in the other over a burnt orange background, while "Blue Night" depicts the architecture of a couple of buildings with bright shades of yellow and red contrasting with various shades of blue. The inspiration for the former can be found in its title, while Swindle created the latter from his view out of a window of a McMenamin's hotel.

This year marked the first time Swindle entered the contest, so he was both surprised and encouraged by the results.

"I thought I would have to work harder before I could get recognized for anything," Swindle said. "So I'm pretty happy I got an award."