March is Arts in the Schools Month: Ash and Madelyn Bring Home PTA Art Awards

The PTA Reflections Competition theme for the 2015-2016 school year was “Let Your Imagination Fly.” According to the National PTA website, the theme was created by Rachel Sperry, who had won last year’s competition, in hopes of allowing the 2015-2016 competitors to explore their imaginations and “inspire others to be creative.”

Wakefield’s very own sophomores Ash Martinez and Madelyn Wood certainly took this message to heart; they both won first place in the PTA Reflections Competition at the regional level and are moving onto the State level.

Ash submitted a video entitled “Pure Imagination.” A remix of the Willy Wonka song is the backdrop to enchanted romance and deep betrayal among eyeless dolls from forgotten toy boxes. Here is the video.

Capture

Madelyn submitted a photo she called “Wandering Imagination.” It features a sleeping girl with a “lit” thought bubble.

Madelyn's Wandering Imagination features a sleeping girl with a "lit" thought bubble.

Even though their pieces are different genres, what ties these two winners together is that their creative processes were along the lines of spontaneity.

Ash’s video was done in the spur of the moment. When asked how he planned for the video, Ash sat upward from his slouched position and said, “I did it all in one take.”

Because he is already invested in making videos, assembling the video before filming was nothing overwhelming for him. He described that he gathered old things lying around like old McDonald’s toys and assembled them in front of a green screen.

As for Madelyn, her award-winning photo was conceived thanks to a photo project on “time-space manipulation.”

The photo was taken when she was with friends and decided that it would be cool if she drew with lights for her assignment. She said, “it turned out pretty well so [she] submitted it” to the competition.

Not surprisingly, these two artists have entered previous art projects to other art competitions. Ash had submitted an this video of his to the 2015 Arlington Student Film Festival. Madelyn has entered in past Scholastic Art and Writing competitions.

For Ash, video is more than a hobby, it’s a passion. He did not hesitate when he said that “video is something [he wants] to do for a career.” He announced that he will be submitting a video for Arlington Student Film Festival 2016.

As for Madelyn, she is proud of her photography skills and plans on doing a photography project later this year. She describes it as a “Copenhagen photo tour with her dad” because she will be going over to Denmark with him and she sees it as an opportunity to flesh out her photography skills.

 

Both artists enjoy the feedback given when submitting work for awards more than the award itself. The feedback helps these artists grow and learn their crafts better.