Ten students who are a part of Chamblee’s visual arts department participated in the All-State Art competition this month. With art teacher Kimberly Landers, they traveled to Columbus State University to take part in an art competition and many different workshops.
“[All-State Art] is a very different experience than all the other competitions I have been to, especially the part of being in a hotel room with your peers,” said Mariana Linares (‘25). “It’s very different because you get to learn about new things, and you’re literally in a college so it feels like a college class.”
“It’s a cool vibe. Everyone’s really into what they’re doing. And the competition the next day is really competitive. It’s a very intense vibe both days,” said Liliana Sandfort (‘24).
Although the weather was overcast over the weekend, it did not dampen the moods of the students who spent some of their free time exploring Columbus and Columbus State University’s campus.
“It was kind of sad because the weather was really bad, so we weren’t really able to go out and that’s what I wanted to do, but it was a great time because a lot of us won awards,” said Nadia Cho (‘24).
On Friday March 1, the students participated in multiple workshops from Kandinsky drawing to Conte Crayon Drawing to Pressure Printing.
“I thought workshops were probably going to be whatever, but they were actually really interesting. I also did have particularly good workshops, so my expectations were definitely exceeded [from the All-State Art experience],” said Kate Tanzola (‘25).
“My workshops on Friday were Ceramics and Drawing with Sound. In Ceramics, we got to do a little bit of spinning at the wheel,” said Amelia Smith (‘24). “Then the drawing with sound was a lot of abstract mark making, where we listened to different sounds.”
The student got to help select which workshops they were interested in and got to participate in three workshops: two on March 1 and one on March 2.
“The Conté Crayon Drawing [was my favorite workshop],” said Frida Nieves (‘25), referring to a brand of crayons. “You started with brown and then added black and added white with the Contés. It’s a still life and the professor’s talking to you, walking around, and giving you tips.”
The competition on Saturday was a great day for Chamblee Art with eight awards won by Chamblee Art students.
“I competed in art history with Liliana Sandfort, and we won first place. I really trusted Liliana, so I was just kind of going in knowing that she would have my back,” said Cho.
The Art History competition is different from the other art competitions because it is a test on the students’ knowledge of art history.
“We went in and there was still life at the center and then we did sketches and ended up creating abstract expressionism. I won third place overall,” said Tanzola, who participated in the Tonal Ink Drawing competition.
From the eight awards won by Chamblee students, Chamblee Art was able to win first place overall for the All-State Art competition, beating out their second place win from last year. Chamblee Art set the bar high and reached even higher at All-State Art.
