I went to the Independence Art Show this weekend. My mom started this show several years ago as a way for high school students to showcase their work. They always give small monetary prizes in 9 different categories. This year, almost all the awards went to students from Fort Osage High School. Guess who the judge was? The Fort Osage art teacher who recently retired after teaching for 32 years. Think there was a slight bias??? I should have taken pictures of the "winners," so you could judge the "talent" for yourself. To give you an example, the student who won "Most Promising New Artist" ($100 prize) used a black felt marker to draw a quick sketch of a man's face. No shading, no detail; basically a simple outline (I think they called it a contour drawing). Now compare that to the girl's face below.
It was absolutely incredible the way she conveyed contours and shadows with doodles. (Ignore the white splotches; those are from my camera flash.) If I were the judge, I would have awarded this girl "Best of Show."
