This past weekend multiple Notre Dame Academy students entered art pieces in the Cabaret Night juried art show.

Ms. Dierdra Stary and Ms. Deile Smith judged the entries. Stary is an instructor in fiber arts at the NWTC Artisan Center, and Smith, a member of the Green Bay Art Colony, is a professional artist who has been showing nationally for 20 years.

Anyone could submit a piece. All that was required was to fill out the form on Google forms to let art teacher Melanie Bradshaw know the kind of work it was, its size and title. Students also had to prepare their piece by matting or framing the work to have it ready for display.

Taking first place was senior Rachel Stover for her oil painting titled “Courtney.” Rachel spent over 150 hours on this piece. The judges were very impressed with the attention to detail and refined technique demonstrated in the painting. It is a very realistic piece.

In 2nd place was senior Hannah Vanden Heuvel for her mixed media piece “Self-Sustained,” which was based on the “Allegory of the Cave” studied in Mr. Gray’s philosophy class. The judges were impressed by the symbolism and drawn to the deep conceptual roots of the piece.

Junior Owen Brummel placed third with his pen and watercolor sketch “I Like Bean,” which depicts the sculpture “Cloud Gate” (nicknamed “The Bean” in Chicago’s Millennium Park). The judges appreciated Brummel’s ability to capture detail within a piece that had a street sketch style.

All second semester art students were required to submit a piece to the general art show. However for the Juried Competition, pieces could be submitted that had been created inside or out of class.

Bradshaw wanted the show to be accessible to all students, even if they had not taken an art class this year. There ended up being a mix of both works that students created as assignments and those that they worked on at home.

“I am very proud of both my students for their part in the show and the students who submitted work for the competition. Putting your work out there for people to see can feel very vulnerable, and just like it takes courage to perform, it takes courage to show the world your work. All of the artists who brought work in did a great job and I am so happy they shared a piece of themselves with us. Though it takes a lot of work to get ready, I am already looking forward to next year’s show,” Bradshaw said.

Senior Rachel Stover will be attending either St Norbert or UW-Madison and plans to study Interior Design with the hopes of eventually having her own interior design business.

Stover is very proud of her painting of Courtney Tilkens that won first place because she spent so much time on it (107 hours). She believes it is the best painting she has done.  She also really liked the pencil drawing she did of her grandma and grandpa’s wedding picture. It has a lot of meaning to her because she did it as a gift for her grandma that she plans to give to her for their anniversary this year. Her grandpa passed away in February from pancreatic cancer, so she wanted to do something special for her grandma.

“I have always loved art and art class ever since I can remember, and painting is probably my favorite. I do oil paintings the most,” Stover said.  

The school will not be hanging up Stover’s painting that won in Cabaret Night this year because it is for Courtney Tilkens so she can’t give it away. The school does have another painting of hers from last year displayed  in the priory.

Stover has sold quite a few pieces. She has done art work for teachers like Mr. Steve Havlichek and Mrs. Andrea Gilson and also for friends and family.

English teacher Carolyn Brown actually asked Stover if she was selling a painting while she was setting up her IB exhibition for Cabaret Night.

One year Stover submitted a painting to the Congressional art Competition which was displayed at the Trout Museum of Art in Appleton and one of the workers there emailed her about multiple inquiries to buy it. Stover also has given many pieces away as gifts for family or friends.

“It’s a special and personal gift I can give to people that makes them so happy,” Stover said.

Stover has one painting in the permanent collection in the school and she has had pieces displayed for the Congressional Art Contest in the Neville or Trout Museums for short periods of time. She placed third in the Congressional Contest last year and had her painting displayed in Mike Gallagher’s Green Bay office for a year.