This year at Green Hope, a number of students won state and nationally recognized awards for their proficiency in art. Avril Yan (‘26), Alex Steele (‘26), Charis Choy (‘26) and Marcus Hulbig (‘26) are among the students who won awards for their art.
Yan, a highschool senior, will have her pieces shown in Artsplosure, a long standing event held in downtown Raleigh showcasing all forms of art and music. Three of her pieces will be showcased at the local festival, “My Mother,” “San Francisco” and “Total Dissonance.” Additionally, Yan won the Scholastics American Vision award for her piece “Generations of Feeling,” a prestigious award representing different regions of the world.
Yan’s piece “My Mother” is a mixed media piece inspired by her mother and grandmother and the relationship between mother and daughter. “I thought it would make a great painting,” she stated after finding a photo of her mother and grandmother from the 80s, which inspired her to incorporate the photo into her project.
Her next piece,“San Francisco,” is a linoleum print inspired by a photo she took in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Captivated by the color scheme she experienced there, she thought it ”would be nice to do in Lino print.” Linoleum is a form of printmaking that is carved onto a block and then pressed onto paper, giving the art an interesting and enticing look.
Yan wanted to capture the feeling of dissociation in her “Total Dissonance” photograph, using material at her disposal to do so. Capturing what she described as, “not really being present in the moment,” she used cool-blue tones to represent the feeling dissociation and evoke emotions within the piece.
Winning the Scholastics American Vision award, “Generations of Feeling” is an embroidery piece that captures the connections between mother and daughter across different generations. Yan explained a disconnect between her and her heritage and expressed a lack of cultural identity. “I was pushed to reflect upon this idea when my grandmother left for China and I felt disconnected from my cultural identity.” Using the embroidering skills her grandmother taught her, she created her award winning piece.
Junior Alex Steele will have two of his art pieces shown at Artsplosure. Steele entered his pieces with the support of Ms. Poppe, an art teacher at Green Hope, who pushed him to enter. He discussed his intentions with his art and stated, “For the pieces that got into Artsplosure, there was no message, but for my other pieces I hope the message got across.”
One of his pieces that was entered is a still life called “Reflections.” He explains completing it in time was the trickiest part, taking 70 hours to make over the course of 8 days. His other piece that will be shown at Artsplosure is called “Origami Tub Painting,” which contrasts a blue paper crane sitting atop a faucet.
Winning an award for the “Ink Octopus” changed the way Choy viewed herself as an artist, to which she stated, “I didn’t think I was bad, but I didn’t think I would win any impressive awards.” After having her art recognized, she said she “began to believe in myself more as an artist.” In the past years she explains that she would draw what looks cool, but recently felt “like I’ve really grown to appreciate art more and want to convey that in my pieces.” helping her grow as an artist.
Winning first place under the category of pen and ink in the Junior Women’s club state competition was Choy’s piece, “Ink Octopus.” Prompted by her stippling project, a medium where artists take an ink pen and continuously add dots on the paper to create their design, “I was like, an Octopus would be cool.” She explains that the process went pretty smoothly and stated, “I think it was challenging because I’ve never done stippling before, but once you get the hang of it, it goes by pretty fast.” She explains it was almost “meditative” once she got into it.
Winning 3rd place at North Carolina’s 4th Congressional district art awards, “A Quiet Ritual,” is a piece done by Choy that was inspired by objects from her daily life. “I put together these really random arrangement of objects,” she stated, thinking they would be interesting to draw. Elaborating on this, she stated, “I pick these objects out of things I see on the kitchen counter a lot.” These are objects used by her parents each morning representing the things one does as they get older.
Also featured at Artsplosure is Choy’s painting “Dying by the Light” which is inspired by the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” by Dylan Thomas. She talked about her inspiration for the poem, discussing how the poem’s inclusion in the movie Interstellar led to her to create her painting. She then discussed the creation and her thought process. “I thought it would be a really cool idea to do white charcoal on black paper,” after reading the poem again. She drew direct inspiration from the lines “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors” and “His eyes would still blaze like the comets.”
Her last piece that will be shown in Artsplosure is called “Quiet.” The prompt was to create a bathtub piece from an interesting angle. Choy discussed the process of creating her work and stated, “It was around midnight and I was in my parents bathroom,” where she attempted to capture an angle for her skills development. Initially, she was going to complete the piece in all graphite, but after seeing it was too plain, she decided to color it in chalk pastel.
Hulbig is a Green Hope junior who won several awards for his pieces of art. He shares that winning awards raised his confidence in his work, but he discussed how each piece has its own challenges. “For realism and precision pieces, the hardest part is definitely getting the proportions right,” but he says it varies depending on the piece.
Hulbig always tries to give his piece a message and explains his favorite piece that he competed so far is “Grief,” that will be shown at the Durham Performing Arts Center. “I wanted to convey the emotion in a way that was not obviously representational,” stated Hulbig, discussing his inspiration from Greek sculptures that play with fabric.
Planning to pursue art in the future, Hulbig states it as “something I am really passionate about.” He runs a service organization called Color for a Cause where members paint murals, and plans to pursue art through that. While still unsure about his work with art in college, Hulbig may try it as a minor.
In addition to major awards, the listed students as well as AJ Bronstein (‘25), Olivia Percival-Shim (‘27), Maria Malgicheva (‘25), Sofia Sande Fernandez (‘25), Julie Bressan (‘25), Avril Yan (‘26), Ana Benavente (‘25) and Alex Gallego (‘25) were accepted in the inaugural art show for DPAC Rising Stars. Their pieces will be on display May 29 in Durham.
Finally, Jenna Lee (‘25) won third place at this year’s congresswoman Deborah Ross’ art competition. Her piece will hang in the congresswoman’s Raleigh office for a year. These Green Hope students are among some of the students who won awards for their excellence in art. Winning national and local awards reaffirmed their confidence as artists, and furthering their pursuit of it in some form.
