Late last year, the LAX Coastal Education Foundation hosted an art competition among 4 high schools: Venice High, WISH Academy, St Bernard’s, and WESM. Submissions were accepted on November 21st, and among the highschool division, all of the top 3 places were placed by none other than Venice students. These students are none other than Mia Rubalcava in first, Monserrath Zapata-Sanchez in second, and Esteban Zaragoza in third.
To broaden the grounds the organization stands on: LAXCEF is a team that comes together and hosts annual fundraising events for an education foundation. The program holds a couple events; most memorably their signature Rock & Roll Run (held at Loyola Marymount University). However, it would only be well disposed to share a moment of appreciation for the victorious competing artists of Venice.
These Art events serve as an opportunity to highlight the young and talented aspiring artists. Twenty-six local schools participate, with different age ranges calling for separate competitions (in order to deem the contest fair).
Every year, a new theme is generated as a prompt for the pieces to demonstrate through illustration. Each piece is intricately crafted according to the said prompt, and then submitted to the board. This year, the theme was “What I love About Los Angeles”, said by Lory Sarlo. Sarlo takes great pride in these events in which she hosts and contributes to in ways that helped make it possible.
To those who construct the art pieces, excessive creative freedom is warranted and encouraged. Students are allowed to utilize tools such as chalk, paints, markers, and even collages to configurate their work. They can pour their hearts and souls out, as long as it fits on a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. The deadline for all submissions was last November.
There are about nine community members on the panel that judge the art, in which they use 5 categories to go based off of. These categories are “the artwork’s capability of following the theme, skill in relation to grade level, accuracy of the composition, and first-impression rating”, Sarlo said.
Among these talented victors is Esteban Zaragoza, who placed 3rd. Practicing art his entire life, he notes that it was a spontaneous burst of creativity after being reminded that the art was due in approximately a week. Taking the piece with great personal passion, he centered his painting around Latinx culture.
“What I love about LA is the people; we have a lot of Latinx people here, Mexican-American culture, so it’s the people that really make the city L.A.” Zaragoza said.
His personal take is one that is unique and blunt, yet outstandingly effective.
“I feel like I’m gonna butcher somebody’s dreams, but don’t strive for perfection – strive to fail. Perfection is like – you’re setting yourself up to not wanna continue, but by expecting to fail you’re preparing to learn something” Zaragoza said.
This philosophy can be applied to anything. When you set an immoderate goal, you become disheartened by any subpar result. It is the cautionary tale of self-inflicted indolence that leads a self-doubting artist to ultimately retire – before even unlocking their potential.
When interviewing the first place winner, Mia Rubalcava, I was intrigued as to how she won, and what insight she might have…
“To prepare for this contest, I thought about recent excursions around LA and the areas I have the greatest connection to in general … areas like Inglewood, the piñata district, and Venice since they connect to my daily life and culture.” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to place anything … I love LA, and thought it wouldn’t hurt to enter in the contest. It made me so glad to know my ideas got across to the people judging the artworks.”
This contest means a lot to contenders – the recognition and appreciation shown towards pieces so close to their hearts not only motivates them to further their hobby of art, but also fosters their appreciation for where they live.
A tip the foundation would like to send to all young, aspiring artists would be to keep practicing and creating. The more you create, the more skill you’ll ultimately build.
It sounds basic, and I know everyone hates to hear it, but there’s no other way to put it. Art is a skill that involves strenuous amounts of stamina and a strong drive to pursue. If you want to reach an artistic goal, the wisest thing to do would be to simply practice.
Venice High has a golden art department, but it’s the students that make it so – THEY’RE the ones with the he(art) of gold.
