In February, 43 students submitted their artwork to the Texas Art Education Associations’ annual Visual Art Scholastic Event (VASE). After ranking top 10% of the art scoring perfect fours, the maximum, 11 students will travel to San Marcos on April 29 and 30 to compete in the state VASE competition. At the competition, students will attend workshops and compete for scholarship money.
Mya Archey, Nicole Beam, Nycholas Castillo, Shelby Gaffud, Janie Gamble, Sophia Garcia, Mariah Hanlon, Isabel Lara, Kaleb Mayes, Arianna Medina and Kennedy Ruhland all will compete at the state competition.
Last year in Pre-AP Art II, senior Kennedy Ruhland drew a piece and was selected for VASE, but she decided to wait until this year to compete. Ruhland currently takes AP 2D Studio Art and will compete in division four, the highest level.
“I didn’t want to compete last year and I guess I missed out on another chance to go to state,” Ruhland said.
Mr. Skinner teaches art classes and works for VASE as a Qualifications Foreman for Region 11S. He oversees the pieces Legacy submits and planning for the trip to San Marcos, TX.
“There was some confusion because of the way the accounting department had us reserve the hotel rooms,” Mr. Skinner said. “We finally got everything cleared up and we are all set to go and compete.”
This year, 28 students in MISD qualified for state competition, and Legacy contributed more artists than any other school. Kaleb Mayes takes Art II. This is his first art competition.
“I usually just draw whatever I feel like, I don’t do much art outside of school,” Mayes said. “It’s cool [going to competition], I just didn’t expect it to happen.”
Janie Gamble, junior, takes Advanced Art II and Painting III. She transferred from RL Turner High School this semester.
“At first I didn’t really want to go to VASE, it’s not really a big deal,” Gamble said. “When I found out I was going to state VASE I was like ‘cool’.”
Ruhland and her parents will travel to San Marcos for the State VASE competition. Her piece is a vintage black and white high contrast piece.
“I don’t really like the piece that’s going,” Ruhland said. “I like to put personality in my art and that was just an assignment. But I’m excited because I didn’t get to do it last year.”
