By Suzanne Hodgson

Staff Writer

Kennebunk’s young artists are getting national recognition through the help of a local art college.

Three freshmen from Kennebunk High School have received top honors in the 85^th annual Scholastic Art Awards hosted by Heartwood College of Art in Kennebunk.

Katelyn Hirst and Kimberlee Keithley both received gold key awards and Megan Nash received a silver key award.

Marnie Rollerson is the teacher behind the three students’ art.

“These three girls really rocked out,” Rollerson said.

The girls were up against 280 other students across the state with 742 pieces of art. Seventy-nine other students won awards but no other freshmen were awarded gold or silver in the competition.

Students submitted artwork in 15 categories including drawing, architecture, painting, mixed media, printmaking, comic art, sculpture, design, analog and digital photography, ceramics, digital art, fashion, jewelry, video games, film and animation.

This is Heartwood’s second year hosting the awards. The Maine College of Art in Portland previously hosted the state competition.

Last weekend on March 13, the college hosted an awards ceremony at the Coastal House in Wells and invited friends, family and the public back to the gallery to see the students’ award winning art.

Heartwood’s president, Berri Kramer, said hosting such an event is no small feat.

“We do it because it’s important to recognize the next generation of artists,” Kramer said.

Kramer said the college is responsible for not only judging and displaying work but sending out reminders to all art teachers in Maine and spending hundreds of hours of Heartwood instructors’ reviewing every submission.

“When we see the work and have the day, it makes everything worthwhile,” Kramer said.

To help pay for the competition, Heartwood received a grant from the Betterment Fund. The fund was created for charitable purposes by the will of the late William Bingham, a resident of Bethel who died in 1955.

 All entries are sent to the college digitally and all artwork viewed by the panel of Heartwood instructors is shown without knowledge of where or from whom the art is sent.

Keithley and Nash both submitted mixed media. Both girls used torn or cut up pieces of paper to create paper collage pictures. Keithley’s shows a self-portrait looking into a mirror.

Nash’s mixed media piece shows a woman’s flowing red gown blowing in a field.

“The tribal dress influenced the whole piece and it went on from there,” Nash said.

Hirst’s gold key award-winning piece is a ceramic teapot in the shape of a couple dancing. The woman’s dress holds the water, the couple’s arms are the spout and the man’s head comes off for the lid.

“It was a matter of (it) being a problem,” Hirst said of the teapots’ spout. “I thought it was a bit funny.”

Hirst and Keithley both submitted more than one piece to the competition, but were pleased at least one was chosen.

“At least they’re putting themselves out there,” Rollerson said.

Each state will send all gold key pieces, including Hirst and Keithley’s, to be viewed by a panel in New York City.

Around 400 out of the 15,000 winning pieces will be exhibited in New York during the summer.

The Kennebunk girls will have to wait until May to find out if they won the exhibit and possible college scholarship.

“I worked really hard. I just wanted it to be seen,” Hirst said.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.