Freshman Spryidoula Angeli advanced to state and won a state medal for her work “Too Many Goldfish?” in the 2023 Visual Arts Scholastic Event. VASE is a competition held every year in Texas to recognize distinguished artists across regions.
Spryidoula Angeli
Scourging through her kitchen cabinets, freshman Spyridoula Angeli was waiting for a glimmer of inspiration for her latest piece. She happened upon a bag of Goldfish and several water bottles and, even if others viewed it as junk or trash, Angeli knew she had found the subject of her next work. That “trash” formed the piece “Too Many Goldfish” with which she competed in the regional VASE competition and was awarded a state medal.
How would you describe the State VASE process?
I thought it would be stressful but when I got there, you had to wait outside for a while. By the time I actually walked in to do the interview, it was not stressful and the people were really nice. We talked about art so it was really cool. For VASE, we went to an actual place so that they actually interviewed us and we didn’t just read off the thing. We got to see more artwork so that was a really good experience. For junior VASE, we didn’t get to do that, we just got the results.
What does your artistic process look like?
My art process is kind of chaotic. I start off with an idea and then I build off of the idea – but it kind of gets me somewhere, sometimes nowhere or sometimes I totally change it. I never really know where it’s going to end up. Finding a good idea and actually trying hard to get it how you want it on the artwork. You have to have a good idea and a clear image and then you can change it up if you want.
What are your specific stylistic choices for this piece?
I chose blue and orange, which are complementary, because blue is already in the composition. It was already blue and orange because of the orange of the goldfish and the blue of the rest of the art. I chose to take away all the other colors to minimize it to two colors. Watercolor is a very good choice to go with because it’s really easy to use to mix together and make it seem cohesive. I chose it mostly because I feel like it could make it a different filter on the artwork and make it more unique than just a photograph.
What was an unexpected obstacle when creating this piece?
Smearing of the ink that sometimes happens and it’s much harder to do whenever you’re working on a large surface and it dries as you go but it’s still something you had to deal with. One that I had to try to actively stop was the paper warping, ripping or losing quality as you added more watercolor. In order for that not to happen, I had to wait for it to dry and add more layers afterwards or work on other spots so that it could dry to fix it.
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Emily Chang: Charismatic
Coppell High School senior Emily Chang is the Senior Class president and is an active member in HOSA. CHS students voted on the 19 most influential seniors in the graduating class of 2023.
Walking into the Dallas Market Center, Coppell High School senior Emily Chang felt a sense of pride and joy wash over her. From selecting the potential themes to coordinating details and decorations, Chang poured her heart and soul into planning the perfect prom for the class of 2023.
The result was a testament to her and the Senior Class officers’ hard work and dedication for tireless months on end.
Besides serving as senior class president, Chang was HOSA president in her junior year and has been vice president of the Future Medical Students organization for the past three years. But it is not competition results or awards that gives Chang the sense of pride when looking back on her time serving; it is the welcoming environment she has helped nurture.
“I think I brought HOSA together – I made it a really fun environment, not just a competition, but a safe space where you can make friends and get to know a lot of other people,” Chang said. “That’s something that’s really important, having good relationships with other people and making sure other people feel valued, that is really what makes people influential and valuable to people. It’s not really what you do. Anyone can go and win a competition and perform really well academically, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with their character, which I think is the most important.”
Despite an impressive resume carrying her to major in health and human sciences at the University of Southern California, Chang’s motivations for putting herself out there when running for Senior Class president were not just to gain a new skill set or play a key role in the creation of memories for the seniors. Her motivations date back to her childhood.
“When I was growing up, I felt like I didn’t see a lot of representation and I didn’t feel like I could be multiple things at once,” Chang said. “‘Duality’ really represents what I stand for. You can go out and have fun all the time, but you can also do really well academically. You can be really successful and do so many things, but at the same time you can be a very genuine person and not lose your sense of character. I hope that people see me not just as successful or someone who is going to a good college and did all these things, but I hope people remember me for what my character is.”
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