You never know what to expect at the annual Student Art Show at Belleville High School.
Impressionism and expressionism, cubism, nihilism and realism were all well represented.
But this year, there was a "schism in the ism."
For the first time ever, judges were torn between the talents of two Belleville High School Seniors.
Rachel Marderosian and Caitlin Putnam split the $1,000 prize awarded in the juried art show.
For its panel of judges this year the Belleville Area Council for the Arts opted to go with selected artists who are accomplished graduates of Belleville High School.
Nikki Hansen- Paluch (BHS 1989) runs a framing studio and also is the art curator at the Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton.
April Maunu (BHS 1991) had been in well received art shows at the Detroit Artists Market and the Biddle Gallery in 2007.
Rhonda Dutton, a familiar face at the Belleville Area Council for the Arts' annual Artist Colony, is currently the gallery assistant at the Amber Eyes Gallery on Main Street.
Judging this year's event was no easy task.
The range of talent was astounding from kindergartener Paige Riggs' clay "Pokey Turtle" to senior Toni Zamorski's lifelike pencil drawings.
"I really wanted to show the detail and I think I accomplished it using the grid technique," Zamorski said.
The range of styles ran from the whimsical, like fifth grader Chelsey Brooks "Looking for Snoopy," featuring Peanuts' Charlie Brown to Edgemont Elemntary School's Zach Martin's tongue in cheek nod to pop art, with a Campbell's soup can.
If the visual intensity of this year's art show didn't you, the motivation would.
If gray is this year's black, nihilism is this year's impressionism.
Tiffany Mayfield explained her powerful "Society's Downfall," by writing "For this piece I drew the "hate" out of a hat.
"The picture portrays the hate that evolves around society in today's world."
Another pencil drawing shows a human being hung with a noose with the "victim" being controlled by a puppeteer.
"The man is controlling what the man can do and obeys without question."
Belleville High School junior Matthew Holmes' stunning "Tranquility" captures a pretty female face painted in various shades of blue.
"I chose blue because it is a calming color, depending on how you use it," he explains.
However, while the subject is tranquil, the range of the blues in her face and hair seem to add dimensions and depth to her mysterious character.
She could be that one woman who stole your heart years ago and now her memory is faded into shades of midnight and gray- blues.
"Artificial" is a life- like body wrapped in a cling- wrap like material and one of the most visually powerful pieces in the show.
"It was quite a challenge taping our body but we had a lot of fun doing it," wrote the artists Miranda Humphrey, Mylon Rose Hemming, Symone Millett, Andrew Golden and Tiffany Mayfield.
"I am continuously surprised by the talent," North Middle School art teacher Petra Hinderer said.
Hinderer was impressed with the artistic maturation some of her past middle school students now show in high school.
But she is also excited with the stunning artwork her students displayed at the show.
"Josh Naud is a really big talent," she said. "I'm excited when he gets to Belleville High School."
Her husband, tech teacher Robert Hinderer, also was very taken with the talent of his students, something he doesn't always get to see in an artistic medium.
"I can tell they have it together and I can see the development as they mature," he said.
"That creative application is different than how I ask them to apply it."
Each student in the show was given a commemorative ribbon to recognize his or her participation.
All artwork from grades seven through grade twelve is reviewed.
The best art of each grade is then juried for first, second or third place ribbons.
Marderosian and Putnam split the $1,000 prize based on the strength of their art portfolios.
Van Buren Public Art Schools teachers Sarah Boehms, Mary Lynn Buckosky, Abby Chatelain, Virginia Falk, Petra Hinderer, Brandi Kruse, Kathy Murphy, Angie Larson, Courtney Leaym, Ellen Lin, Lynn Onuma and Genevieve Riggs assembled the hundreds of pieces of artwork to get the show on the floor.
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