Work by Kat Bayard of Linden Hall.
Work by Kendra Beitel of Hempfield High School.
Work by Emily Bennett of Hempfield High School.
You will be impressed.
Amazed.
And confounded.
How could high school students, and in some cases, middle school students, create such terrific art work in the Lancaster County Young Artists exhibit, opening Friday at the Lancaster Museum of Art and the Demuth Museum? (Mulberry Art Studios will open its share of the exhibit on Wednesday.
The work is too poised, too assured, just too darn good.
But then, the student artists in Lancaster County have a strong reputation. For years, the county blew away the competition in the Scholastic Art contest, winning way more than our share of awards.
Last year, when the organizers decided to leave the Scholastic Art competition for a variety of reasons, the overwhelming talent of the county's art students would not be silenced and the Lancaster County Young Artists awards were born.
More than 2,800 kids, including students from almost every high school in the county and home schoolers, applied for this year's exhibit.
The best of them are on display, with gold and special award winners at the Lancaster Museum of Art, senior high silver and exhibit awards at Mulberry Art Studios and junior high silver and 2D exhibit awards at the Demuth Museum.
Carol Anspach, who oversees the mammoth event, says she is especially impressed with the photography.
She is also thrilled with the drawing.
"Drawing is the basis of all art and I am so glad the kids are drawing from life."
Of course, there are amazing pieces in every category, from jewelry to sculpture to ceramics.
Where do you begin?
That's an impossible question to answer.
Some of the work is dramatic and serious, like the two portraits by Jackie O'Connell (a senior at Solanco High School) of a bald-headed boy, one painted in color, the other in shades of gray. The intriguing expression on his face is hard to fathom as it entices you in.
Some of the work will put a smile on you face, like Maggie Ostrowski's big, cheerful baskets, made out of newspaper strips, which won the Pauline Stauffer award. She is a junior at Lancaster Catholic High School.
In that same vein, Kierston Poe, a senior at Catholic High, created a tree made out of garbage bags that commands the landing to the second floor in the Lancaster Museum of Art.
Emily Bennett, a senior at Hempfield, won the Lancaster Designer Crafts award for her body of work, an array of gorgeous jewelry.
Sophomore Amber Frey won a gold award for a tiny metal pitcher that's beyond charming.
The ceramics are incredible, not only in their inventiveness, but in the glazes and the shapes, which sometimes get quite elaborate.
And it isn't just high school students who have created terrific pieces.
Several students from Manheim Township Middle school won gold for ceramic vases that connect themselves to nature. They include Zoe Kaminski, Erin Wittmer and Michelle D'Amato, all eighth graders.
Mary English, a senior at Catholic High, uses newspaper to create a portrait of a woman, with provocative headlines in the background. The closer you get, you begin to see that the entire portrait was created with cut out pieces of newspaper.
Samuel Root, a freshman at Solanco, created an animated film on DVD and supplied information about how the film was made.
There is so much more, but trying to describe it all is a fool's errand.
Go see it instead -- it runs through March 28 at all three locations -- and prepare to be amazed.
Lancaster County Young Artists Exhibition
Junior and Senior High
Gold and Special Awards
and Scholarship winners:
Opening reception, Friday from 5-8 p.m.
Cont. through March 28
Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Lancaster Museum of Art
135 N. Lime St., 394-3497
Senior High Silver and
Exhibit Award winners:
Opens Wed.
Cont. through March 30
Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Mulberry Art Studios
21 N. Mulberry St., 295-1949
Junior High Silver Award winners
Opening reception, Friday from 5-7 p.m.
Cont. through March 28
Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Sun. 1-4 p.m.
Demuth Museum, 120 E. King St.
299-9940 www.demuth.org