Each year, students from all over the globe have the opportunity to submit art and writing works to be judged in the Scholastic Art and Writing awards. This year, Southern Lehigh boasted 11 regional award winners. Out of these students, seniors Pete Natkin and Jocelyn Burns received national awards for works from their art portfolios.

“They have to come up with eight pieces that are connected in some way,” art teacher Mrs. Anne Sikorski-Schneider said. “They have to be original, something no one else has done.”

Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is an intense and rigorous competition with participants from all over the world. Out of the 330,000 pieces entered, only 19,000 receive regional recognition. Following that, 2,000 pieces are nationally awarded.

Naktin received a gold medal for his piece, entitled, “The Center of the Pecking Order.” The piece was part of a kinesthetic drawing portfolio. The kinesthetic technique is defined as art that revolves around movement.

“It is a picture of one of our chickens, but I used kinesthetic techniques to make it,” Naktin said. “I wanted to integrate one of the drawings we did earlier this year into an otherwise realistic drawing. We did kinesthetic pieces earlier this year in portfolio [class] and that’s what inspired me to try that new style.”

Naktin started his portfolio in the summer and spent thousands of hours working on the piece.

“He finished them and brought them to me and asked if they were finished,” Mrs. Sikorski-Schneider said.”I said no, and he did reworking. [After that] he said, ‘But are they gold?’ I said, ‘Well, you could still do more.’ Getting finished is one thing, moving it to a great level is another, and making it award winning is where it sets the student apart.”

Burns received a silver medal for her photo, “August Ambience.” The photo was of her aunt’s backyard in Portland Oregon during sunset.

“Taking the picture is hard because you have to be in the right place, and you have to have the right eye,” Burns said. “After you take it, you have to look at it on the computer. That one didn’t need much editing. I just did some color boosting. Printing is hard because you have to make sure the printing preset matches the picture preset. It is very tedious. You have to get it to print the same way it looks on the computer and on the camera.”

Burns began working on her two portfolios 11 months before they were due. She shot, reshot, and edited dozens of photos before selecting photos that worked together to make a wholistic body of art.

Both Naktin and Burns started making art when they were children and are both will attend Temple University next fall to study fine arts in Tyler School of Art. Naktin will also be studying biology.

“I want to pursue graphic design or photography, or both,” Burns said. “I want to work in the field and eventually wanna get my Master’s so I can become a professor. If I could work in a magazine or something, I’d be super excited.”

For aspiring artists, Naktin, Burns, and Mrs. Sikorski-Schneider all recommend hard work, dedication, and practice.

“They have to do their passion,” Mrs. Sikorski-Schneider said. “They can’t just make a piece of art and throw it in. They have to really reach inside [themselves] and look at what they’re doing and strive to make it even better. Good isn’t good enough if they want this.”

Both Naktin’s and Burns’s artwork will spend a year travelling around the country with the other nationally awarded works.