• 3rd Place - 6th Grade. Title: Egg. Artist: Haven Flett. Medium: Digital. School: Walter L. Kraxberger Middle School. Description: It's a redraw of a drawing I made in 2020! It has no meaning, just something fun to do! The artwork depicts an anime-style girl with light brown hair wearing an oversized dark red sweater, standing in front of a house with a stone wall and iron fence. Cherry blossom petals fall around her against a dark night sky, with pink flowering branches and green grass visible in the background.
  • 3rd Place - 6th Grade. Title: 12 Months of Goats. Artist: Amaya Taylor. Medium: Colored pencils. School: Walter L. Kraxberger Middle School. Description: What inspired me to do this artwork was I had a baby goat calendar and I decided to make 12 months of goats in my style. Instead of pictures. The artwork shows twelve hand-drawn goats in colored pencil, each representing a month of the year and dressed in themed costumes — including a snowman-bodied goat for January, a Valentine's goat for February, a leprechaun goat for March, a patriotic goat for July, a Halloween pumpkin-headed goat for October, and a "Bah Humbug" goat for December, among others. The title "12 Months of Goats" is written at the bottom left.
  • 2nd Place - 6th Grade. Title: Kazoku. Artist: Gabrielle Davis. Medium: Pencil. School: Walter L. Kraxberger Middle School. Description: I had never made a picture of my family, so I tried my best on making a realistic looking drawing of my siblings and I. The artwork is a detailed pencil drawing divided into a grid of panels, featuring realistic portrait studies of several young people along with intricate botanical illustrations of flowers and leaves filling the surrounding spaces.
  • 1st Place - 6th Grade. Title: Wings. Artist: Amos Diller. Medium: Digital (Google Drawings). School: Meridian Creek Middle School. Description: This is a portrait of me at the zoo. The artwork is a bold digital illustration of a figure wearing a blue checkered jacket with orange trim, a blue cap, and gray pants, with one arm raised. Large white wings extend from the figure's back against a dark navy background. The image is styled like a slightly tilted photograph with a white border.
  • 3rd Place - 7th Grade. Title: Digital Mosaic. Artist: Isabella Sirianni. Medium: Digital. School: Walter L. Kraxberger Middle School. Description: I didn't have much inspiration other than that it was based off of one of my favorite characters from a game. There's no actual message behind the artwork I had done. The artwork depicts an anime-style character with wild purple hair, wearing a white and gray outfit with black and white checkered patterns. The character has a playful expression with an open mouth showing teeth, and holds their hands up near their chest. The artist's name "Isabella Sirianni" appears in pixelated text in the upper left corner against a black background.
  • 2nd Place - 7th Grade. Title: Eye of a Creature. Artist: Lyric Jones. Medium: Digital. School: Rowe Middle School. Description: Abstract digital drawing of an animal eye. The artwork features a large, stylized reptilian eye against a blue background. The eye has a vertical black slit pupil surrounded by jagged green-teal spikes, with golden-yellow organic shapes resembling scales or feathers radiating outward around it.
  • 1st Place - 7th Grade. Title: Peace & Harmony. Artist: Emma Daugherty. Medium: Digital. School: Meridian Creek Middle School. Description: Peace & Harmony is a picture that I took of my two beloved pets, Yogi Bear (The Dog) and Tiger Tail (The Cat). Yogi is a short hair Saint Bernard dog that has no mask and is 7 years old. Tiger is a Tabby that is 17 years old. The digital artwork depicts a large white and brown Saint Bernard dog looking upward with its mouth slightly open, wearing a red collar, while a smaller tabby cat with dark stripes curls up against the dog below. They are set against a dark interior background with a houseplant and vase visible behind them.
  • 3rd Place - 8th Grade. Title: Storefront. Artist: Sydney Dow. Medium: Watercolor and Ink. School: Athey Creek Middle School. Description: The artwork shows a gray urban storefront with the word "STORE" painted above the entrance. A silhouetted figure stands in the large front window, through which a vivid sunset sky of purple, pink, orange, and yellow clouds is visible. Details include a door with a handle, graffiti-like markings on the walls, a trash bag on the left, and a trash can on the right.
  • 3rd Place - 8th Grade. Title: The Greater Grief. Artist: Maxx Sells. Medium: Digital. School: Ogden Middle School. Description: 'and perhaps it is the greater grief, to be left alone when another is gone.' The digital artwork shows a figure with long dark hair sitting in a hunched, sorrowful pose with arms wrapped around their knees, rendered in warm earth tones of brown and tan. The quoted text appears in italic script above and below the figure, which is framed by a dark brown double border against a terracotta-colored background.
  • 2nd Place - 8th Grade. Title: Me and my Oreo. Artist: Bobbie Jones. Medium: Digital. School: Meridian Creek Middle School. Description: In this picture you will see me hugging my stepmom's cat Oreo. He is in fact the first pet cat that I ever had. The digital artwork features a close-up portrait of a person with brown hair and green eyes holding a black cat with a white stripe on its nose and bright green eyes. The cat has white paws visible at the bottom. The image is framed with a vivid hot pink border and set against a blue background. The artist's initials "BJ" appear in the lower left corner.
  • 1st Place - 8th Grade. Title: Everyday. Artist: Keira Aoyama. Medium: Watercolor. School: Athey Creek Middle School. Description: The watercolor painting is an abstract composition featuring a small white figure with hair seen from behind, surrounded by swirling washes of gray, black, and muted blue. Geometric shapes — circles, rectangles, and triangles — in black, blue, and dark purple are scattered around the figure, creating a sense of surrounding chaos or contemplation. The style is loose and expressive with visible brushstrokes and ink outlines.
  • 3rd Place - 9th Grade. Title: SweetPea. Artist: Abigail Humphrey. Medium: Colored pencils and plain paper. School: Gladstone High School. Description: SweetPea represents the sadness and worthlessness I feel. SweetPea acts like me, but me at the scariest and saddest points of my life. I constantly fill him with anger, with lines of my own sadness. I'm sorry SweetPea. The artwork depicts a surreal, heavily detailed face with a green triangular nose, spiral eyes, and an open mouth showing teeth, surrounded by an intricate mass of striped, worm-like tentacles in various colors including gray, teal, yellow, pink, and red. The entire composition fills the frame in a dense, zentangle-like pattern against a dark background.
  • 2nd Place - 9th Grade. Title: Sailing the Seven Seas. Artist: Oliver Litchfield. Medium: Pen. School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: A zentangle drawing of a ship passing a small island as waves crash against the hull. The black and white pen drawing is composed entirely of intricate zentangle patterns — checkerboards, crosshatching, chevrons, dots, curves, and geometric fills — forming the shapes of a sailing ship on turbulent waves with an island and dramatic sky in the background.
  • 1st Place - 9th Grade. Title: A Woman's Stare. Artist: Carlin Dudevoir. Medium: Pencil / Charcoal. School: Milwaukie Academy of the Arts. Description: I made it to be interpreted by others. You can see some of the base lines, and you can see less details in places like the hair and shirt. That's due to my personal preference, the subtle factors of light and dark make things look more realistic and stylized. The artwork is a realistic pencil and charcoal portrait of a young woman with dark wavy hair pulled partially up, gazing directly at the viewer with an intense expression. Her arms are crossed in front of her chest. The shading uses strong contrast between light and shadow, with the hair and clothing left loosely rendered while the facial features are finely detailed.
  • 3rd Place - 10th Grade. Title: Silence Kills. Artist: Skyler McElroy. Medium: Marker / Ink. School: Oregon City Service Learning Academy. Description: This art piece was mostly started as a chance to vent, but as I made it more it's a mental health awareness art piece. The artwork shows a figure with long dark hair and a sad expression sitting cross-legged on a pink bed, wearing an orange hoodie and dark pants with yellow sneakers. A phone lies on the floor beside the bed. The room includes a window showing rain and a small umbrella, a shelf with a plant, and simple wall decorations. The style is illustrative with bold outlines and flat color.
  • 2nd Place - 10th Grade. Title: Cardinal Sculpture. Artist: Michelle Luna. Medium: Clay, needle tool, sponge, ribbon tool, red stain, red glaze, brown glaze, yellow glaze, black glaze and clear glaze. School: West Linn High School. Description: This Cardinal Sculpture was inspired by the beautiful nature and world we live in. The piece is about 4 inches in length and 3 inches in height. The motive behind choosing this specific bird comes from my childhood. My Mother, once bought me a pillow with a cardinal standing right in the middle. I still have the pillow till this day, and I will never forget the meaning behind it. Two photographs show a hand-sculpted ceramic cardinal bird with rich red glaze, brown wing details, and a black face mask. The top image shows the full bird perched upright, while the bottom image is a close-up of the head and beak showing the detailed glazework.
  • 1st Place - 10th Grade. Title: Grief Comes in Waves. Artist: Hannah Olson. Medium: Oil paint. School: Clackamas High School. Description: When my best friend died, they told me grief would come in waves. In time, I came to understand that. This image illustrates my grieving process. The oil painting depicts a young woman lying on her back on a bed with white pillows, gazing upward with a contemplative expression. Blue-green water with painted waves flows across and around her body, merging the bedroom scene with an ocean landscape. In the water, a sunset sky with golden light, purple clouds, green trees, and a small red sailboat are visible, blending the interior and exterior worlds together.
  • Honorable Mention - 11th Grade. Title: Tea Time. Artist: Jade Schoenfeld. Medium: Stoneware. School: West Linn High School. Description: The tea pot and tea cups are all made of stoneware ceramics. The color of clay used was Toast. The teapot height is approximately 7 inches with a width of 7 inches (including spout and handle.) The teacups are 3 inches high with a 2-inch diameter. Two photographs show a handmade stoneware tea set in a warm tan "Toast" clay color. The top image displays the full set against a black background — a round teapot with a lid, small spout, and a red-wrapped arched handle, surrounded by four small rounded teacups. The bottom image shows a closer angle of the teapot and cups, revealing the smooth, unglazed surface and the organic, handcrafted forms of each piece.
  • Honorable Mention - 11th Grade. Title: Wasted Year. Artist: Madison Nimz. Medium: Mixed Media. School: Gladstone High School. Description: Figurative collage, multi media. The mixed media artwork features a central pale-faced female figure with white hair, dark lipstick, and a yellow polka-dot top, surrounded by a chaotic assemblage of imagery. Red ghost-like figures float above, skulls line the right side, and various collaged elements fill the left — including a sticky note reading "Have a good day! Enjoy," photographs, drawn eyes, lips, a small cartoon character, and layered paper scraps. The overall composition is dense, dark, and expressionistic with a grunge-art sensibility.
  • Honorable Mention - 11th Grade. Title: Sleeping with a Mosquito. Artist: Connor O'Neil. Medium: Digital Media. School: Sabin-Schellenberg Center. Description: A composite photo based on the quote "If you think that you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito," from Dalai Lama. Attribution for the insect wing goes to Tanakwho on asknature.org - The digital artwork shows a dark silhouette of a human head and shoulders in profile, filled with a composite scene of a burning, war-torn cityscape with destroyed buildings, smoke, fire, vehicles, and debris. Inside the head, a pink exposed brain is visible with small mosquito-like insects swarming around it. The overall effect blends destruction, thought, and the metaphor of small things making a large impact.
  • Honorable Mention - 11th Grade. Title: Preservation and Culture. Artist: Mason Cruz. Medium: Digital media. School: Sabin-Schellenberg Center. Description: There are so many different cultures and people that are still being suppressed and silenced in the United States. This piece is an artistic viewpoint of Latino culture's struggles during the 1960's and shows how long certain cultures have been segregated and silenced. The digital collage depicts a scene set against a brick wall, featuring historical imagery related to the Latino civil rights movement. Red circular "Huelga NFWA" signs are visible on the left, a sign reading "WE SERVE WHITE'S only NO SPANISH or MEXICANS" hangs in the upper right, and figures in the scene include farmworkers and a law enforcement officer. Text in the lower left reads "CESAR CHAVEZ 1969 NFWA LEADER."
  • 3rd Place - 11th Grade. Title: Pelindaba Lavender. Artist: Riley Hirsch. Medium: Oil pastel. School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: Landscape with purple flowers and a lake. The oil pastel artwork depicts a lush lavender field in the foreground with rows of purple and white flowering plants. A stone path winds through the garden toward a blue lake or pond in the middle distance, with dark green trees and a textured blue sky with white clouds in the background. The colors are rich and layered with visible pastel strokes throughout.
  • 2nd Place - 11th Grade. Title: Shades. Artist: Stephanie Yates. Medium: Paper collage. School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: Black and white portrait of a guy wearing 3 pairs of colorful sunglasses. The paper collage artwork is a portrait of a person with dark wavy hair, composed entirely of torn and cut pieces of paper in shades of white, gray, and black. The figure wears three stacked pairs of sunglasses — a green and orange pair pushed up on the forehead, and a purple-lensed pair over the eyes — providing the only color in the otherwise monochromatic composition. The collage technique creates a mosaic-like texture across the entire image.
  • 1st Place - 11th Grade. Title: Lacking. Artist: Reese Stame. Medium: Pencil. School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: A pencil piece of art depicting my struggle with perfectionism and the stress that comes along with it. The highly detailed pencil drawing shows a young woman sitting against a brick wall, holding one hand up to her forehead while clutching crumpled fabric or paper in her other hand. Her expression conveys exhaustion and distress. The shading is dramatic with deep darks and bright highlights, and the textures of the brick wall, skin, and wrinkled material are rendered with meticulous detail.
  • Honorable Mention - 12th Grade. Title: The Calling. Artist: Emma Mitchell. Medium: Digital. School: West Linn High School. Description: A girl looks back at the viewer while entering a dark forest, led by a luminous deer. The digital illustration is formatted like a tarot card or vertical panel, showing a young woman with brown upswept hair and a blue dress looking back over her shoulder in the lower portion. Above her, framed by a dark archway of trees, a glowing white deer stands at the edge of a dark forest reflected in still water. Purple wisteria-like flowers drape across the top of the arch. The color palette is predominantly deep blues and teals with the luminous deer providing a cool white focal point.
  • Honorable Mention - 12th Grade. Title: Wildfires. Artist: Katie Weber. Medium: Digital photography. School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: Wildfire sky in front of LOHS. The photograph captures a school parking lot with green trees, light poles, and an American flag under a dramatic wildfire-affected sky. Thick brown and gray smoke clouds roll across the upper portion of the sky, contrasting with patches of blue sky and golden light filtering through below. Parked cars dot the lot, and the overall atmosphere conveys an eerie, hazy quality.
  • 3rd Place - 12th Grade. Title: Stressed. Artist: Tab Daniels. Medium: Mixed media (oil pastel, acrylic paint and india ink). School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: A portrait meant to represent the feelings of being overwhelmed, with staggered and scratched lines to show the feelings of anxiety. The expressionistic mixed media portrait shows a face rendered in bold black ink lines with teal-blue shading, spiral eyes, and a hand pressed against the cheek. Chaotic scratched and splattered black lines radiate outward, with splashes of red and pink in the background. The style is raw and gestural, with heavy contrast between the pale background and aggressive dark mark-making.
  • 2nd Place - 12th Grade. Title: Mess. Artist: Hannah Tsai. Medium: Watercolor. School: West Linn High School. Description: Watercolor of textures and things looking down from an above perspective. The watercolor painting presents a bird's-eye view of a jumble of personal items — including striped and plaid fabrics, socks, clothing, what appears to be tubes or containers, and various crumpled textiles — all piled together in soft muted tones of gray, blue, pink, cream, and lavender. The rendering is highly detailed and realistic, with careful attention to the different textures and patterns of each item.
  • 1st Place - 12th Grade. Title: Reaching Out. Artist: Adilee Holmes. Medium: Digital media. School: Sabin-Schellenberg Center. Description: This piece is about finding yourself realizing self worth. It's easy to become trapped in the dark forest of your mind and surround yourself with negative thoughts, which is why it's so important to look at yourself and realize you are magical. The digital photograph/composite shows a young woman with long curly hair reaching her hand toward a mirror or portal. On one side, she is bathed in warm golden-green light surrounded by lush vines, flowers, a glowing orb, and a blue butterfly on her hand. Her reflection on the other side appears in cooler, darker tones with her hand touching her face. The contrast between the two sides creates a visual metaphor of inner discovery and self-recognition.
  • Best in Show. Title: Lacking. Artist: Reese Stame. Medium: Pencil. School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: A pencil piece of art depicting my struggle with perfectionism and the stress that comes along with it. The highly detailed pencil drawing shows a young woman sitting against a brick wall, holding one hand up to her forehead while clutching crumpled fabric or paper in her other hand. Her expression conveys exhaustion and distress. The shading is dramatic with deep darks and bright highlights, and the textures of the brick wall, skin, and wrinkled material are rendered with meticulous detail.
  • Staff Choice Award. Title: Pelindaba Lavender. Artist: Riley Hirsch. Medium: Oil pastel. School: Lake Oswego High School. Description: Landscape with purple flowers and a lake. The oil pastel artwork depicts a lush lavender field in the foreground with rows of purple and white flowering plants. A stone path winds through the garden toward a blue lake or pond in the middle distance, with dark green trees and a textured blue sky with white clouds in the background. The colors are rich and layered with visible pastel strokes throughout.

More than $50,000 in potential scholarships and other prizes were awarded to middle and high school artists at the virtual awards ceremony for the fifth annual Clackamas Education Service District Regional Art Show.

The Facebook Live event, held April 27, honored the 107 students from eight school districts in Clackamas County who submitted artwork to this year’s show. The recorded event can be viewed to the right.

Thirty juried awards were presented during the virtual ceremony, hosted by Clackamas ESD Superintendent Jada Rupley.

The “Best of Show” winner – who also placed first in the 11th grade category – was Reese Stame of Lake Oswego High School for her poignant pencil self-portrait “Lacking.” In a written description of the piece, Stame said it describes her “struggle with perfectionism and the stress that comes along with it.” Stame’s prizes for her double win included a $400 pre-college scholarship from the Pacific Northwest College of Art for summer 2021; a four-credit tuition waiver from Clackamas Community College; and three months of one online class and one summer camp from One River School of Art + Design in Lake Oswego.

Adilee Holmes of the Sabin-Schellenberg Center in Milwaukie took home the top 12th grade award for her stunning digital media self-portrait titled “Reaching Out.” Holmes was awarded a $5,000 renewable PNCA Art Excellence Scholarship, and two months of an online class at One River School.

Other top high school honors were presented to Hannah Olson of Clackamas High School, who won first place in the 10th grade category for her moving oil painting “Grief Comes in Waves”; and Carlin Dudevoir of Milwaukie Academy of the Arts, who took first place in the 9th grade category for their pencil and charcoal drawing “A Woman’s Stare.”

All high school prize winners were awarded varying levels of PNCA scholarships, and gift cards for online classes at One River School.

Middle school winners, who all received One River School online class gift cards, included Keira Aoyama (8th grade) of Athey Creek Middle School in Tualatin for her watercolor painting “Everyday”; Emma Daugherty (7th grade) of Meridian Creek Middle School in Wilsonville for her digital portrait “Peace & Harmony”; and Amos Diller (6th grade) of Meridian Creek Middle School for his digital drawing “Wings.”

Clackamas ESD’s Staff Choice Award, voted on by ESD employees, was presented to Riley Hirsch of Lake Oswego High School for her oil pastel painting “Pelindaba Lavender.” Clackamas ESD will purchase Hirsch’s painting for $100 to display in the organization’s permanent collection.

A complete list of winning students and their artwork can be found in the slideshow above.

“There are so many people to thank for making this year’s art show and awards ceremony such a success,” said Rupley. “PNCA, One River School and Clackamas Community College provided another year of incredibly generous support so that we could offer meaningful prizes. Six regional art professionals spent hours adjudicating the entries. So many teachers took extra time in a hectic year to gather and submit entries.

“And, of course, our amazing students once again showed us how talented they are, and how art can move and inspire us. We have been honored to present their work to a broader audience in this year’s virtual show.”

The 2021 Clackamas ESD Regional Art Show virtual gallery will remain online through June 1 at https://www.clackesd.org/2021-clackamas-esd-regional-art-show-virtual-gallery/.