Educators spend most of their time helping their students reach their highest potentials. Finding time to work on their own development is difficult, and many educators put their own work aside to devote more time to their students. To help educators develop their own artistic practice, the Scholastic Awards partnered with Golden Artist Colors to select three educators to participate in the GOLDEN Educators Residency: a two-week painting residency in upstate New York at the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation’s artist residence space. The three selected educators are:
Geeta Dave
Prairieville, LA
“Inspired by my heritage and the natural beauty of India, I always paint symbols with a full range of narrative expressions that come from the world of nature. I enjoy working on large projects with passion, intense colors, and swirling forms to reveal the hidden animals and the sacredness of all life. Using symbols, like the circle of life, my work explores the relationship of force and identity. I create a connection between primal forces that investigate the interconnected relationships between people, animals, and their environment.”
Kevin Kelly
Wichita, KS
“In artistic practice, finding a blank stage to play out the tensions of contemporary life means investigating the negative space between abstractions of my own creation and concrete observations of the mundane world around us. In this negative space, I am looking for relationships between artistic gesture and the unrelenting pressures and absurdities of daily life. With this work, collage and masking techniques are metaphors for interruption and the collision of competing contexts. I want the work to be driven by the play between the exterior and interior forces that drive our lives.”
Brian Payne
Yukon, OK
“During the spring of 2014 I made a promise to my AP Studio Art students that I’d paint a portrait of them if they passed the AP Studio Art portfolio review . . . For the AP class of 2015, I began to focus on the concept of memory and how one’s memories of high school could be recalled later in life by hearing a song, finding an old concert ticket, or wearing an old article of clothing. I began working with what I call “memory blocks,” which are transparent rectilinear frames that can be joined together or free-floating. The joined memory blocks represent memories that can be easily recalled or are still etched vividly in the student’s consciousness. However the free-floating blocks are those memories that have been lost but can still be recalled from one’s sub-conscious.”
Congratulations Geeta, Kevin, and Brian!
We would also like to acknowledge the finalists whose impressive works made reaching the final decision a difficult process:
Lynn Bennett-Carpenter, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Rouzanna Berberian, Monrovia, CA
Cynthia Berger, Minneapolis, MN
Amy Bouse, Inglewood, CA
Caitlin Clifford, Cortlandt Manor, NY
Elaine Florimonte, South Riding, VA
Todd Johnson, Knoxville, TN
Christina Keith, Prior Lake, MN
Shannon McBride, West Linn, OR
The nine finalists and three residents will all receive $1,000 gift certificates, courtesy of Golden Artist Colors.
This year, the three selected Residents will also have a special exhibition opportunity. They will join the nine Residents from 2015–17 in a group exhibition at The Painting Center in NYC from September 4–26, 2018. Come visit the show this fall, and join us on September 6, 6:00-8:00 pm, for the opening reception at The Painting Center!