Students from various high schools in southern Illinois and southeast Missouri have been working for several weeks to create their pieces for the 34th Annual High School Art Exhibition. The exhibit in the Rosemary Berkel & Harry L. Crisp II Museum at the River Campus includes artwork in various forms, including sculpture, ceramics, photography, printmaking, mixed media, drawing, fibers or painting.

Contestant Heather Gillock chose to do a drawing of herself at a young age, which took her approximately a week to finish.

"I was looking through old pictures in my family's photo album, and I saw this picture," Gillock said. "I thought it would be a really good picture to do because that was one thing I used to do when I was little was pull Kleenexes out of a tissue box."

High school student Brooke Baugher went through a longer and more tedious process to finish her fiber piece, which involved working one to two hours every day for four to five weeks.

"You had to wax a piece of white fabric, throw it in a dye, wax over the color you wanted to keep, put it in more dye and then when the waxing and coloring process was done, you had to iron out the wax," Baugher said.

Kassie Schlatweiler used her own emotions to create a drawing of a woman being grabbed in different directions by multiple hands.

"At the time I was going through a, for lack of a better term, desperate part of my life, and I kind of felt like I was being pulled in a bunch of different directions," Schlatweiler said. "I thought, what better way to express that than to put multiple hands around a picture."

Artists were not the only ones hard at work for this exhibit. Juror Terrance Thomure spent time reviewing submitted pieces and deciding what artwork would go in the show.

"Each artist brings their feelings and ideas to their work, which must be combined with technical proficiency in the use of their selected medium," Thomure said in his juror statement. "My process for selecting the works for the exhibit begins with observing the work and looking for skillful use of the medium combined with creativity and a sense of good composition. I also try to find diversity in each category."

Southeast art instructor Carol Horst and a team of Southeast art students also have spent time preparing for the exhibit.

"The art education students helped with all aspects of the exhibit," Horst said. "They collected and documented the incoming artworks, assisted the juror in the jurying process, assisted in the installation of the exhibit and assisted with the opening reception."

After all the preparation, the exhibit opened with a reception on Feb. 12. Contestants used that time to show their work to their families and award winners were announced.

Ashley Cusick won featured artist for her clay sculpture. She recieved a scholarship to attend an art academy workshop in a medium of her choice during the summer.

"I didn't even know about it until I got the award, but all the workshops look really cool," Cusick said. "All of them kind of benefit to what I like to do as a hobby."

Baugher won the award for best in show, which awarded her a $1,000 scholarship to study art at Southeast.

"I had been thinking about double majoring in art, so the scholarship is sort of like the topper on the cake," Baugher said.

Though Schlatweiler did not receive an award for her piece, she felt she benefitted from entering the show.

"I think it will put me out there," Schlatweiler said. "I would like to do something with art because I do have a passion for it, so hopefully people will see that in some of my work."

The 34th Annual High School Art Exhibition will be on display until March 11 in the Crisp Museum.