Newtown’s Congressional Arts Competition Winner Honored In D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, June 25, Irene Koh of Newtown was honored in Washington, D.C., along with other Congressional Arts Competition winners from across the country.

Irene, who just graduated from Newtown High School, was selected in May as the winner of the Congressional Arts Competition for the Fifth District of Connecticut. Her artwork was selected from over 100 submissions by high school students from across the Fifth District. All of the contestants’ work was on display at a week-long art show at Mattatuck Museum of Art in Waterbury in May.

Irene was one of three Newtown High School students who received an honorable mention or higher distinction in the recent contest. Fellow senior Meaghan Prophy and sophomore Jacqueline Rosa also were also honored with in a gallery reception at the Hartford School of Art.

All three entries were hung is the school’s Silpe Gallery. In total, the exhibit featured 500 of the 2,000 submitted entries.

Irene won a gold key, the highest award given. A digital image of her work was then submitted to the National Level Scholastic Art Awards, which is what she was honored for last week. Jacqueline was awarded a silver key for an entrance in ceramics, the second highest award, and Meaghan received honorable mention for a her still life painting.

The contest was juried by local professional artists and university art faculty.

Irene’s piece, called “Harmony,” is a mixed medium piece that was was part collage and part acrylic painting, although she actually began with plain old house paint, she told The Bee in May.

 “The process was actually just getting the poster board, painting house paint on it, putting newspaper on that, letting it dry, and then putting the acrylic on that. Then we had to incorporate the colors of the acrylic with the colors of the house paint,” she said of the assignment.

To choose a subject, she said, she and her classmates, “Looked through old photos that we had. So this picture was of me and a friend in Korea. We were at a café, listening to my iPod. I just remember it as being one of my more fond memories of Korea. It was my sister’s friend at NYU; he came to visit. I don’t usually have friends there.”

After she had allowed the newspaper to dry, Irene said, she had to choose which parts to obscure with acrylic and which to leave bare. “I just left the newspaper were it looked natural,” she said, because, “I wanted to make it look complete in it’s incompleteness.”

Together, the house paint, newspaper, and acrylic create a piece more closing resembling a drawing, then a painting. The newspaper, showing through the layers of earth-toned paint creates a sense of light and shadow. It calls attention to a cheekbone, a shoulder, and an elbow of the two students sitting across the table from each other. Left bare and white, the newspaper guides the eye across the canvas.

Although Irene won a $5,000 scholarship to The Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design,  she said she plans to attend the Rhode Island School of Design next year.

Now that she has been named the winner of the Fifth District Congressional Arts Competition, Irene will have her work displayed in the tunnel to the U.S. Capitol for one year.

“I was so impressed by the artwork submitted in this year’s contest. I am sure it was a tough choice for the judges, but Irene’s work stood out for its originality. I congratulate her on her selection,” said Congressman Murphy.

The second place winner for the Fifth District’s competition was Amanda Morse from Wolcott High School. Her piece, “Brandon,” will hang in Murphy’s Washington D.C. office.

Charlotte Wolfe of the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury was selected as the third place winner. Her artwork, “The Bench,” will hang in Mr Murphy’s office in New Britain.