Thirty-six Mount Pleasant High School Art students entered 52 art pieces in the Region 8 Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) competition on Saturday, February 11 at Chisum High School. Art pieces were scored as a 4 (Excellent), a 3 (Strong), a 2 (Developing), or a 1 (Emerging). Thirty-nine of the MPHS pieces received gold medals and the highest rating of 4, with 12 pieces scoring 3’s.

In order to advance to state, the piece must first earn a rating of 4. All of the 4’s in a particular division are then judged a second time and state advancements are awarded based on an allotment, roughly 10% in each division. At the end of the day, five pieces by four MPHS students advanced to the state Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) competition. Only 18 pieces out of 285 in the entire region qualified for state so MPHS students made up over 25% of those advancing.

Earning scores of 4 (Excellent) and moving on to state are junior Stephanie Hernandez for Eternal Youth, sophomore Josue Vega for two pieces titled Cowboys and Tree, and freshmen Valerie Moss for Into the Woods and Cassandra Saavedra for Never Gonna Give You Up.

Gold medalists also earning scores of 4 (Excellent) are Luis Avilez, Ana Bonilla, Hannah Bowles, Rafael Calderon, Judson Colley, Ailyen Delarosa, Yair Gonzalez, Litzy Gonzalez, Evelyn Hernandez, Stephanie Hernandez, Kami Labutis, Allyssa Latimer, Jose Lopez, Jaydy Martinez, Rebeca Martinez, Valerie Moss, Alyssa Narvaez, Ayden Osterdock, Tisha Patel, Dayanara Pulquero, Juan Ramirez, Cassandra Saavedra, Makayla Spigner, Silvia Sustaita, Diego Ugalde, Hayden Tennison, and Jordan West.

Earning scores of 3 (Strong) are Elise Alcibar, Rafael Calderon, Saray Delarosa, Kami Labutis, Jose Lopez, Emilia Marino, Jaydy Martinez, Moises Perez, Miriam Rojas, Diana Vargas, and Daniela Zuniga, with Mollie Luck earning a 2 (Developing) for her work.

“This is a special year because we have finally gone back to a normal year of competition,” said MPHS art instructor, Laura Kirkland. “Because of Covid it has been online the past few years. It is really nice to get it back to the way it should be. My students really enjoyed the interaction with the jurors and students from other schools. We took 52 pieces of Artwork and received a total of 44 medals and we have 5 pieces of artwork going to state. I am tremendously proud of each of these students for having the diligence to put in the hard work and showing up to represent it at VASE. I believe their hard work has paid off!”

The state Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) competition will be held at San Marcos Consolidated High School on April 28-29. The MPHS Art program is under the direction of Laura Kirkland.