THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601110167
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
The reward, says the yellow brochure: FUN.
What better way to get children interested in a project? Teachers and parents already know that there are a whole lot more perks to the ``Reflections'' program than just fun. Just don't tell the kids.
Hundreds of thousands of school children nationwide are preparing this month for ``Reflections'' sponsored by the National PTA.
The cultural arts contest, offering cash prizes, scholarships, books and art supplies at the top level, gives children the opportunity to compete against peers in four categories. They enter first at their school, with winning work moving on to the county, district, state and national competition levels. Any interested child in grade K-12 can submit original work in photography, visual art, literature and music composition.
``Reflections'' has long been a creative outlet for local Dare County kids whose in-school cultural art programming has generally been under funded and under staffed.
Early on, the contest caught the eye of Manteo Middle School eighth grader, Andre Ritchie, who has been submitting work since at least third grade.
Andre usually submits drawings or paintings, but last year he entered a piece of music he wrote for the saxophone. On several occasions, Andre's work has progressed to the state level, after winning a local, county and district award. The contest, to Andre, is ``a way to express and show my talent. I just like to create things. I like just to draw imaginary things. Some stuff that's real, too.''
Linda Ritchie Crassons, Andre's mother, is a well known visual artist in Dare County who encourages her son to draw.
She's been called upon many times to help judge the competition with several other judges.
``It's really inspiring to me to read the literature and see the artwork and hear the musical pieces they come up with because I think it brings out a lot of creativity,'' she said.
Each year, students are given a theme to work from. Kids have brain-stormed over topics such as: Imagine that, Exploring new beginnings and If I had a wish. How they use the theme is very important in the judging process.
``Fifty percent of the judging is weighed on the use of the theme,'' said Dare County PTA Chairperson Denise Harris. ``So that has as much strength as technique and style and ability.''
Harris' 13-year-old son Stephen is an artist who enters regularly. After hearing in the news about the rise in AIDS and cancer cases, especially in the youth population, Stephen painted a rain forest with water colors and black marker and titled it: ``Imagine that we could find a cure for cancer and AIDS in the rain forest.''
``I tried to think of something global that would touch the judges hearts,'' he said. ``I pretty much think global all the time.''
The rain forest painting won a National Honorable Mention Award. ``You know it felt good, it felt more than just good,'' Stephen said.
``It felt like I really accomplished something.''
But like Andre, Reflections means more to Stephen than just winning. ``It guided me toward being a better artist,'' he said. ``When I first started, I copied pictures, little kid things like video game characters. When I got up to winning levels, I realized I could create my own ideas and do better.''
Kids don't have many opportunities to share their art with the public, noted Stephen. He said Reflections gives kids the chance ``to let people know how they feel, their style of art and how they feel towards the world.''
Crassons sees Reflections as a therapeutic tool. ``I think kids are starting to see the importance of fairness in the world,'' she said. ``That everybody needs food and warmth, and racial injustice is wrong, and they write about these things and draw pictures to show how they feel about these important issues that we face in the world, as an outlet.''
Crassons looks for something ``gutsy'' in the entries, something that stretches boundaries.
``Catchy rhymes aren't as important as something heart-felt,'' she said. ``It's not as important to have something real polished.''
As a judge, she takes her work seriously.
``It's never fun because there are so many good ones,'' she said. ``You just have to narrow it down. It's just how life is.'' by CNB