The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, as well as The Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE), are Texas’s UIL event for art and programs for creative students to participate in, compete and win awards from recognition to the National medalists who become eligible for scholarships or their art presented in exhibitions. The contestants are then judged by luminaries and qualified art professionals in the visual and literary arts.
This year, LASA has participated in many art competitions and, one of the most recent competitions, has been VASE. Jessica Fisher, the visual arts and fashion design teacher, talks a little bit about what the competition is.
“What people do is they take their art work, they can take up to two pieces, and they have it juried by an artist, a college professor, or a teacher, and they rank your scores from one to four,” Fisher said. “But they’re judged on composition, technical ability, use of color, student voice, all different kinds of art techniques.”
There are not many rules to the competition, students are able to bring artwork that they have worked on in previous years or in class. Though, according to Fisher, there are some requirements.
“It has to be all student driven. So it can’t be an image that they’ve pulled from Pinterest or Google. It has to be one that they have taken themselves as a reference or from imagination,” Fisher said. “So, it has to be completely original and unique and it does have to be a finished piece of work.”
For some students, VASE can be a very stressful competition. Freshman Jeremiah Patino, a first-time competitor in VASE, finds the competition a little intimidating.
“The most challenging part is seeing who your competitors are,” Patino said. “And looking at the art designs from last year.”
Though, there are parts of the competition that Fisher finds helps students with, not just their art, but also their presentation skills. Allowing them to more easily talk about their artwork to people that they have never met before.
“It teaches students how to talk about their artwork and open up to someone other than their peers and their teacher,” Fisher said. “That takes a lot of courage and a lot of practice.”
Although many students find different types of art in the competition from various skills of artists, there are ways to be successful in VASE. Patino finds this through being confident in one’s own work.
“Don’t let people let you down,” Patino said. “Don’t think your art is ugly because everyone is unique in different ways”
The VASE ranking system is very similar to other systems, with artwork being ranked on a scale from one to four, with four being the highest ranking. Some of those that obtain a four get to attend state. Throughout the course of VASE, Fisher mentions the entire region competition experiencing success. But, from that, she mentions that the LASA students also saw high ratings.
“From our school we had three students go to state and then we had mostly fours.” Fisher said.
By participating in the competition, many students feel accomplished. Not only happy with their placing, but especially the work that they produced.
“The only thing that matters in the end is that you are happy with what you have created.” Patino said.
