In The News: Two NHS students win Gold Keys for their artistic work

Written by: Seth Gordon , Newberg Graphic 

Chandler Everett and Brenden Fields are among the five to earn regional honors at Scholastic Art competition

Five Newberg High School students were recognized recently for their work at the Willamette Valley Scholastic Art competition, with Chandler Everett and Brenden Fields earning Gold Keys for their work.

Everett was inspired to enter the competition by friend and classmate Kiernen Vanden Hoek, who has had success in the past and earned a Silver Key for his work “Fractured” this year.

Everett’s winning piece “Letting Go,” however, was intended as a gift for his sister as a decoration for her wall. That and knowing that she wanted a portrait were his starting points, along with a random photograph of a bearded man in glasses he found online.

Everett’s black and white drawing is characterized by the back of the figure’s head devolving into geometric shapes which seem to be floating off in the breeze.

“I didn’t want it to look like a normal person, so I changed it up and put in those shapes and roughened parts, like the back of his head,” Everett said. “While I was drawing it I had some stuff on my mind that was bugging me and that piece really helped me to let go. I just poured my thoughts out onto the paper.”

Brenden Fields earned top honors for his stencil piece “Speak,” a Silver Key for “The World” and honorable mention for an untitled work. Fields and Everett are now eligible for national competition for their Gold Key entries.

“I don’t know if it’s because it’s my artwork and you’re always critical of yourself, but I didn’t think I would do that well in the competition,” Everett said.

Also earning a Silver Key for her piece “Looking Up” was senior Elena Krupicka, who will attend Philadelphia University to study industrial design next year. Jarom O’Neil received honorable mention for his untitled drawing as well.

“It was my first entry, so I wasn’t expecting to win anything,” Krupicka said. “I was pretty happy.”

Unlike Everett’s, Krupicka’s piece was the result an assignment from her advanced placement art class with instructor Stashia Cabral, who tasked students with portraying something either above their heads or below their feet.

Her depiction of a portion of the Newberg School District Administration building is a bit askew and intersected by the barren branches of a tree.

“I just like the way that it looked and I didn’t want anything to be clearly in focus,” Krupicka said. “I just wanted it to (appear) that you were looking up at something. It’s the perspective of walking down the sidewalk and looking up at the building.”