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Home > Archive > Mar 22, 2007

Pine View Wins Big at 'Fantasy Art' Competition
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
Pine View Middle and High Schools took home the lion's share of awards at the recent James Larkin Fantasy Art Contest, which took place at Hurricane High School March 6. Pine View Middle School eighth-grader Amanda Syphus won the People's Choice Award and accompanying trophy for a dragon sculpture she created, and she also won third place in the 3D category for another sculpture. Collectively, Pine View Middle and Pine View High took home the contest’s traveling trophy, winning from among Washington County schools and schools as far away as Parowan and Beaver.
Fantasy Art Contest director Melani Havens said points were awarded to each competing school based on the number of individual student wins at the contest. Students winning the Best in Show and People's Choice awards scored 10 points each for their respective schools, and points were also awarded for first place, second place and so on in the various categories. Syphus contributed several points to Pine View's win with her sculptures.
Syphus, who has been drawing since she was 2, only recently began competing with her artwork. She took first place earlier in the school year at the first art contest she ever entered, and since then, she's been on a roll.
“After that, she just took off,” Amanda’s mother, Wendy Syphus, said. “She realized what she was doing had value, had worth, and people really liked it.”
Amanda, whose dream is to be an animator someday, showed promise as an artist from a very young age. Her early artistic endeavors, though not altogether desirable to her mother, were nonetheless impressive, Wendy Syphus said.
“She had a magic marker fetish, and everything in our house was covered!” she said. “I was amazed at how detailed the drawings were for a 2-year-old.”
Though Amanda does still draw, her preferred medium these days is sculpture. She said her People's Choice-winning dragon sculpture took about two hours to complete at the Fantasy Art competition, where every work of student art had to be created on site.
“You had to bring your own supplies, so people would bring their own pencils and paint,” Amanda said.
Her art teacher brought sculpting clay for students to use, and Amanda chose to work in that medium for the contest, a decision that paid off at award presentation time. But the subject matter came easy to her, as she spends most of her artistic time creating pieces with a medieval theme.
“She really loves the fantasy (genre) most,” Wendy Syphus said. “All her drawings and sculptures are along the fantasy line.”
The Fantasy Art competition was intended to give students with a love for fantasy art, like Amanda, an outlet for their creativity. The contest originated with James Larkin, a former Hurricane High School art teacher. Larkin retired from teaching a few years ago, but before leaving, he requested that current director Havens, who had assisted him with the contest as a volunteer in previous years, carry on in his stead. He said to have another art teacher direct the contest was chancy, because other teachers were already so booked up with commitments that the contest might not survive. Havens agreed to take on the responsibility, and she has directed the contest for the past four years. Though she no longer lives in Hurricane but has moved to St. George, it hasn't swayed her efforts, and she said she plans to continue on as the Fantasy Art director for many years to come.
“(Larkin) felt the kids needed a contest where they could really express their art, the creativity inside them,” she said. “It is just awesome to watch the creativity of the youth in this area.”
And creative the students were. They came armed with nothing but the supplies they would need to produce their works of art – everything from pastels to pieces of wood. Amanda said one high school student made a dragonfly sculpture out of metal and wood.
Hurricane Middle School art teacher Fred Kulick said for him, winning is not the emphasis of the annual competition because, as in any contest, judging is subjective, and what one judge likes another may not. He urges his students to do the best they can and create art that is pleasing to them. In this way, Fantasy Art is a chance for students to unleash their imaginative energies. It's also enjoyable for the budding artists.
“It was really, really fun,” Amanda said. “There were a lot of people. There were really good sculptures, too.”
This was Amanda's first year competing at Fantasy Art, and she plans to go back and participate next year. She received a trophy measuring about three-feet tall as the People's Choice winner and a smaller trophy for her third-place sculpture, but she has her eyes on a bigger prize when she's a little older – the $50 cash award winners at the high school level receive. But though the money is certainly enticing, director Havens concurs with Kulick that money and trophies aren't the name of the game.
“The whole idea of this contest is to encourage the kids to keep doing artwork,” she said. “There is so much talent in this area. I think it is really fun for them to express themselves.”

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