BRUNSWICK

The art program at Brunswick High School has been helping students find success, sometimes in unexpected ways. For one student, success has meant reaching creative and academic heights. For another, the art program has helped her break free from past trauma.

Galen Gaze

Galen Gaze of Brunswick won the 2018 Congressional Art Competition for Maine’s 1st Congressional District. Her illustration, entitled “Toucanana,” will be on display at the U.S. Capitol for a year. Another one of her illustrations — “Innocence Is Bliss” — earned an honorable mention.

Gaze, 18, a senior at Brunswick High School, said she has been creating art since she was very young in Rochester, New York.

“Galen’s unique and creative drawing will certainly catch people’s eyes when it is on display at the Capitol,” Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said in a press release announcing the competition’s results.

Judges Pamela Moulton and Beth Wilbur Van Mierlo praised Gaze’s winning work for its surprising and creative content, strong composition and technical quality, according to the release, noting “she really pushed the medium.”

“I was pretty excited,” said Gaze, recalling when she found out. “All I remember, after getting off the phone with Ms Pingree, and Mrs. K.G. asked, ‘How do you feel?’ I was kind of in shock.”

The judges also recognized the work of four other 1st District students: 1st Runner Up Benjamin Folsom of Falmouth High School, 2nd Runner Up Rachel Walton of Yarmouth High School, and Honorable Mentions Corilie Green of Freeport High School and Chelsea Zhao of Falmouth High School.

Gaze’s “Toucanana,” drawn in charcoal pencil when she was a junior, depicts a lifelike toucan that swaps out the bird’s sizable bill for a banana. It was drawn as part of an art class project where the directive was to pair an animate and inanimate object.

Other works by Gaze aren’t as whimsical, but strives to make the viewer think. For example, one work depicts a KFC-style bucket filled with chickens and leaking blood. Another shows a rabbit inundated with cosmetic products — a statement on animal testing.

“For me, growing up, surrounded by animals, I’ve taken a little animal advocacy in my work,” Gaze said. “In my work, I want it to be powerful. … I’ve tried to direct my work so that it’s not exactly in your face, but still retains a powerful statement.”

After graduation, Gaze said she plans to go to college to receive a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in illustration. She has already been accepted to Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and is waiting to hear back from other schools, including Rochester Institute of Technology.

“While I like other arts — ceramics and stuff — I found my work tends to drift a little more illustrative. I like having a story in my work,” Gaze said. “I would love to be a children’s book illustrator, or just an illustrator of books. When I was young, I was really inspired.”

Gaze said she was especially drawn to children’s illustrator

Jan Brett, especially her drawings in the 2002 children’s book Daisy Comes Home.

“It was beautiful,” Gaze said.

BHS art teacher Colleen Kearney-Graffam said Gaze from the outset “nailed down” her advanced placement work.

“She’s an excellent student

and her work speaks to that, as does her excellent ability to convey an idea to somebody,” Kearney-Graffam said.

Kelly Ledsworth

For BHS senior Kelly Ledsworth, art has become a medium through which she deals with having a difficult childhood.

“I’ve had a troubling past, and art has been one of the only things there for me,” said 18-year-old Ledsworth. “It allows me to express myself and I can delve into my own emotions.”

Ledsworth said much of her youth was spent in what she called “an abusive household” from 2nd to 10th grade. The art programs in the Brunswick School District, meanwhile, allowed her a degree of self-expression that allowed her to cope with the trauma she experienced.

“If I’m feeling sad, if my old childhood memories come up, I can sketch it out, draw it out, and get those feelings out through a creative way,” Ledsworth said. “It helps me turn something negative into something very positive.”

Channeling high emotions into something tangible is, not surprisingly, not without its challenges. The advanced classes at Brunswick High School can offer a degree of latitude, however, for a budding artist to create with emotional content, according to Kearney-Graffam.

Through her coursework, Ledsworth said that “I’ve learned that it’s OK to express myself.”

“I used to not be able to express myself,” Ledsworth said. “In creating more art, and delving into different mediums, I’m learning that the world is a nice place if you choose to make it one.”

Ledsworth said she can also leverage art to both change her own outlook and have a positive impact upon others: “I think that’s really beautiful. I wish that more people did art, and more people looked into how to express themselves and change things for the better.”

“Art is different from other subject matters, as it really engages the head, the heart and the hand,” Kearney- Graffam said. “It’s not just about how to paint a landscape, or how to do figure drawing. It’s about how we holistically teach the brain so we are learning skills and the language of art.”

Kearney-Graffam notes how art brings out life skills and work habits — focus, perseverance, and to have “flexible thinking.”

“These are all habits of work that they carry into life, into jobs, into college, and into other subject area,” Kearney-Graffam said. “It’s a rare breed of a class. Students are engaged, there’s a dialogue. Making something out of nothing, just based on what they see or feel or experience — it’s a significant learning experience to take an art class.”

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com