THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503120319
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
A pooped Sydney Meers was choking down a hot dog midday Saturday in Scope, where art by 525 local high school students was displayed.
The event was Student Gallery preliminaries, and Meers would be choosing one artist for the first-ever Dumbfabulous Award - brainstormed and bankrolled by Meers, owner of Norfolk's Dumbwaiter restaurant.
The amount: $251.42. The trophy: A funky artwork made by Meers and a few of his artist friends, including hair salon owner Angelo Mesisco.
Meers had been up half the night cooking, and had arrived at 10 a.m. to begin the selection process. ``This is amazingly big,'' he said, bug-eyed. ``Row after row after row. So far, I've narrowed it down to 20.''
While Meers studied the art, local art experts were selecting 29 honorees and 61 finalists. Also perusing the show were more than 1,000 students, parents and art teachers.
Art by the finalists will be exhibited April 2 through May 7 at The Chrysler Museum; honorees' art will be displayed March 31 through May 5 at Crestar Bank Gallery.
Any junior or senior living in Hampton Roads was eligible to submit two works for the 23-year-old competition, sponsored by Crestar Bank and The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
Much of the art dealt with serious subjects - rites of passage, isolation, censorship, morality.
``There's an outpouring of pain in some of these works,'' said Cheryl McLean of Virginia Beach.
Her 17-year-old son Adam McLean, a Tallwood High School student, showed a painting titled ``Alien Abduction.''
``I believe strongly in extraterrestrials,'' Adam said.
The expressionistic painting read like a cartoon strip. From left, he said, ``the ship's coming down and dropping off an alien. Then the aliens are taking people up and doing experiments on them. Implanting babies to see what will happen.
``Then, strange things start happening. The mother dies, because she can't have this baby alien.''
Adam wore a ``Just Say No'' button - no to ``drugs, sex and alcohol,'' he said. ``I strongly believe in that.''
The artists' perspectives were diverse. Justin Trask, an Ocean Lakes High School junior, said ``a lot of students have been getting down on me (for his viewpoint). A lot of my friends are atheist.''
He showed a sculpture made from a chair decorated with photos of presidents, nails and Trask's own writings: ``We slaughter our unborn infants on the alter of personal selfishness. . . . The truth of God is taken from our schools by action of Government while unbridled sexuality, humanism, and Satanism are taught at public expense.''
Trask titled the work, which earned him finalist status, ``Morally Correct.''
Churchland High School senior Angela Byrne also created a sculptural chair, titled ``Censorship.'' She crafted a skeletal figure of copper and plaster and bound it to a gutted chair.
``Whenever people talk about censorship, I get this vision in my head, like I'm being tied down. Like I couldn't do what I want to do,'' said Byrne, an honoree.
Bobby Lee Rangel, a Tallwood High School senior, clowned around within sight of his constructed painting of figures in various positions. ``I started with the wood,'' he explained. ``As I looked at it, and within myself, I saw pieces of me. Little self-portraits.''
With his neon-orange-dyed hair, baggy pants and comic ways, Rangel resembled a new wave Harpo Marx.
During the awards ceremony, chef Meers took to the podium. The work he finally settled on ``is full of emotion. It showed pain, sensuality, and it showed direction.''
The work was by Rangel, who bounded happily onto the stage to receive his prize. ``And now,'' a tired Meers told the crowd, ``I have to go cook.''
As winners signed over their art to show officials, Virginia Beach artist Juan Miguel Eclarinal grumpily toted his large box construction away.
The Ocean Lakes High School senior suspected his work was disqualified because it contained perishable material: sandwich meat.
``I'm not sure that was the reason,'' Eclarinal said. ``A lot of bologna got in. But not the real bologna.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
From left, Jessica Humphrey, Laurel Barnes, Amanda Stephens and
Paolo Arao went to Scope exhibition hall Saturday for Student
Gallery, an art contest open to 11th- and 12th-graders throughout
greater Hampton Roads.
by CNB