Davis Publications Wyatt Wade President’s Memorial Award Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School
Student Name: Mario Purser Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: I used to hate telling other people that I was adopted because it made me different from my peers. But by staying quiet, I was slowly ripping a hole in my identity that would not close. I have slowly begun to accept my past, however, this process is slow and I’ve realized healing is not linear. I created this piece to portray the quiet, ongoing struggle of accepting my adoption as I grew up.
Teacher: Veronique Latimer
Reflective Self
MAEA BIPOC Student Award Organization or School Affiliation: Medfield High School
Student Name: Keala DeHoff Grade: Grade 11 Artist Statement: This reflective self portrait explores value, distortion, & depth recession. I attempted to create a visual pathway through the curve of the progressive measuring cups. Featuring my image in the foremost cup, then expanding to environment, & light reflection in the subsequent cups. Teacher: Meg Drew
Midsummer Indolence
Virginia M. Diani Adams Memorial Award Organization or School Affiliation: Acton Boxborough Regional High School
Student Name: Nathaniel Kim Grade: Grade 11 Artist Statement: From traveling through culture and immersing myself in books I came to adore, this painting reflects a summer that rebirthed how I saw myself and the world. To preserve what I loved, I began this work fishing for remnants of withering memories. Through the process, however, I learned to embrace the changing, unpredictable present while honoring and emancipating my indelible summer.
Teacher: Eliza Greene
Plum Rose
Cape Cod Potters, Inc. Best Ceramic Award Organization or School Affiliation: Falmouth High School
Student Name: Breanne Hunter Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: My work is about vulnerability, strength, and emotional contrast. The roses are growing out of the form rather than just being placed on it. That choice was intentional, because love, pain, and growth aren’t things that exist separately from us—they shape us from the inside. I wanted to show that delicacy doesn’t mean weakness, and that beauty exists in both joyful and painful moments. Teacher: Corine Adams
Plasticosis
Davis Publications Award Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School
Student Name: Kaileigh Walker Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: Plasticosis represents how in human's efforts to progress we are actively destroying our and our offspring's future. In this piece a dead mother albatross is feeding her chick the same plastic that killed her. Her longing to raise her youth is driven by a wanting to serve her species but her attempt at doing so is only leading them to their demise. Teacher: Veronique Latimer
Peach Box of Memories
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Award Organization or School Affiliation: Silver Lake Regional High School
Student Name: Ashlynn Runey Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: I created this piece to evoke emotions of nostalgia, and depict the continuous spinning clock of time. Even as time continues on, there will always be reminders of the past, and when rummaging through the past it is important to remember the now; the reflection of the present moment. Teacher: Hannah Close
Behind the Seams
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Award Organization or School Affiliation: Acton Boxborough Regional High School
Student Name: Esther Song Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: I often find myself reminiscing about the security and comfort I once felt in my childhood. In my painting, I cut open my old teddy bear to find the source of that lost peace. Intent on retrieving my former life, I am unaware of my split back, spilling the same cotton stuffing: I am made of the same pieces as my past. I search for answers, not realizing they are already a part of me. Teacher: Eliza Greene
Where I once lived
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Award Organization or School Affiliation: Wilbraham and Monson Academy
Student Name: Gia Khang Kevin Pham Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: When looking at drawings of the apartment complex where I once lived, I wanted to express my feelings of nostalgia and longing for my childhood memories through a model. I decided to arrange each 'unit' based on my memory of the apartment I once lived in, to capture both the claustrophobic feeling of the building as well as the warmth and closeness shared among the families.
Teacher: Marvina Lowry-Brook
Anchored
Printmakers of Cape Cod, Inc. Best Print Award Organization or School Affiliation: Falmouth High School
Student Name: Heather Crowell Grade: Grade 10 Artist Statement: This is a linoleum print that I made based on the view of an underwater scene that I imagined. I wanted the print to be centered around the anchor to give the viewer a sense of stability. It is also inspired by the Cape Cod waters and the boats I always see passing by, because that is significant to my own sense of belonging and familiarity. Teacher: Jane Baker
Ember
MAEA Art Educator Award Organization or School Affiliation: Somerville High School
Student Name: William Redd Grade: Grade 11 Artist Statement: This soda-fired vase explores the balance between intention and chance. A restrained, classical form provides a foundation for the unpredictable surface created by soda ash reacting with the clay. Warm golds, and deep red tones move across the vessel, recording flame, heat, and atmosphere. The firing becomes a collaborator, revealing beauty through subtle variation, process, and transformation. Teacher: Taylor Byrne
Helping Hands
MAEA Art Educator Award Organization or School Affiliation: Somerville High School
Student Name: Matteus Ungar Grade: Grade 11 Artist Statement: This pottery explores the bond between people and everyday objects. The bowls, plates, and cups feature small clay figures interacting with each form. Inspired by sharing a meal with community, the work reflects how meals invite people to slow down, gather, and connect, highlighting pottery’s role in comfort, community, and culture. Teacher: Taylor Byrne
Múirín
MAEA Art Educator Award Organization or School Affiliation: Somerville High School
Student Name: Rayven Cooke Grade: Grade 11 Artist Statement: Múirín is an original character inspired by the Scottish myth of the Selkie; a human who can put on a sealskin and become a seal. Her name, Múirín, is a name of Irish origin meaning born of the sea. They’re depicted in both her seal form in the ocean on the right and the view of Brixham harbor in England where they live.
Teacher: Lindsey Richard
That’s Enough
MAEA Art Educator Award Organization or School Affiliation: Oliver Ames High School
Student Name: Rebecca Curtin Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: In a world of fake smiles and endless pressure, “That’s Enough” is a dramatic charcoal piece that displays authentic emotion. I drew much inspiration from feelings I experienced towards the end of high school, and the overwhelming sense that comes from this cusp of independence. I sought to capture a magnified version of this threshold of feelings that many can relate to.
Teacher: Kristyn Shea
Muted Within
MAEA Art Educator Award Organization or School Affiliation: Oliver Ames High School
Student Name: Angelina Romeiro Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: “Muted Within” is a pen and ink composition that illustrates my experience in a toxic relationship where I was afraid of speaking up about the manipulation that I had endured. It displays how women can be silenced emotionally and physically in toxic relationships. Shaded with the technique of micrography using words such as toxic, control, and hurt in order to reinforce the loss of voice. Teacher: Kristyn Shea
Family Chords
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Category Award: Drawing Organization or School Affiliation: Oliver Ames High School
Student Name: Lilliana Banks Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: “Family Chords” was created in recognition of my father. He has played the guitar for years and he loves to share his music. The composition not only celebrates the instrument he cherishes, but also the complexity of the elements that form it. Each colorful component of the guitar reflects the warmth, presence, and tone he brings to my life, representing his influence into the piece.
Teacher: Kristyn Shea
Covid
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Category Award: Painting Organization or School Affiliation: Fontbonne the Early College of Boston
Student Name: Maria Medina Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: For me, this piece was a way to process the chaos of the pandemic. I loved creating this little graffiti world to capture the moment in history we all lived through. There is even a version of me on the ladder masked up and painting my way through the uncertainty. I wanted to take a heavy subject and transform it into something vibrant.
Teacher: Nicole Robertson
Elegy for the Wound that Blooms
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Category Award: Mixed Media Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School
Student Name: Sophia Jiang Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: When I come across so-called 'roadkill' I stop to gently move their bodies onto a plot of soil, honoring them as creators of wild-breathing brushstrokes. Fleeting, but comforting knowing one day their carcasses will decay to birth the wildflowers humans appreciate in awe -- death, then, is not an end; but art, in motion. Here, I insist that the forgotten are also worthy to 安息 (rest well). Teacher: Veronique Latimer
After The Rain
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Category Award: Photography Organization or School Affiliation: Bedford High School
Student Name: Grace Nam Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: I almost missed this scene because it was such a mundane setting: a handful of tables and chairs on some rooftop deck after a heavy storm. However, the common caution sign creates a surprisingly striking and pleasant display. It serves as a reminder to tread carefully after the storm’s end, but the setting sun’s rays serve as reassurance to take a breath—the storm has passed with another day. Teacher: Heather Beattie
Interpersonal Beauty
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Category Award: Digital/Graphic Design Organization or School Affiliation: Pentucket Regional Middle High School
Student Name: Stevie Aldrich Grade: Grade 11 Artist Statement: Focuses on composition & emotional value. Conveying the feeling of isolation & insecurity meeting interpersonal beauty. The woman seen blending & fusing with her environment despite lack of warmth within.Color symbolizes separation between her & the brightness of the environment which tries to cling onto a wall of dullness she creates,allowing some of herself to merge with it &the rest stays stuck Teacher: Marcia Nadeau
CONCHiousness
Blick Art Materials Gift Card Category Award: Ceramics Organization or School Affiliation: Somerville High School
Student Name: Tad MacDonald Grade: Grade 12 Artist Statement: The shell is what we leave behind after we pass away. When you open it up you can see the body of the snail by the empty space it left behind. “I let the moon wash over me and kiss my resting soul”-- This refers to the passage of time and the waves on a beach where this shell might reside. The barnacles are in the shape of a hand print, showing how beautiful things are touched and changed by life. Teacher: Taylor Byrne
