
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997                TAG: 9703160044

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   75 lines

STUDENT GALLERY '97: ``OPINIONS, BELIEFS, IMAGINATIONS''

Jeremy Dice kept a straight face Saturday as he perused Student Gallery '97 preliminaries wearing a Marilyn Monroe wig with a pin-striped suit.

``I wore the wig so my friends wouldn't recognize me at first,'' said Dice, a senior at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach. His own thatch is long and brown.

Dice, in fact, is a theater student at the Governor's School for the Arts. But he submitted artwork for Student Gallery, a 25-year-old art competition open to all 11th and 12th grade students in Hampton Roads.

Any junior or senior could enter two pieces of artwork for preliminary judging on Saturday, with honorees and finalists announced in the afternoon.

The 60 finalists will be exhibited at The Chrysler Museum of Art April 6 through May 11. The 29 honorees will be shown April 4 through May 9 at Crestar Bank Gallery.

With such high-profile awards and exposure as the lure, 616 students and their friends and family members spent a spring-like Saturday in Scope's convention hall, checking out the region's top high school art, and enjoying the clowns, mime and live music.

Since Dice is a theater costumer, he submitted a costume he designed and constructed - a black velveteen shift with silver lame cuffs. ``It was for a futuristic play set in a discotheque,'' he said.

He wasn't the only one to submit wearable art. Gwenavear Dong, a native of China, exhibited a Japanese kimono.

``I think my Chinese culture is fascinating, but I like to explore other cultures,'' said Dong, a Maury High School senior who attends the Governor's School.

In making it, ``I didn't use a pattern at all,'' Dong said. To display the kimono, she created a two-faced mannequin from handmade paper and wire.

It's a kind of self portrait. ``See, this side is Chinese, and this side is American. I'm bilingual and bicultural.''

Her friend, Nicole Barker, a Maury High junior, displayed a mixed media painting of a mushroom cloud explosion.

``I call it `Magic Mushroom.' It's sort of like backwards magic. Very destructive. Evil,'' Barker said.

Entering the show ``means a lot,'' Barker said. ``I get to come and see other people's work, and see what's in their minds.''

She gestured at the surrounding field of photographs, etchings, paintings and sculpture.

``These are people's thoughts, opinions, beliefs, imaginations. We're looking into their minds.''

Inside Tom Morgan's mind was ``a real obsession with rib cages,'' said the Cox High School senior from Virginia Beach.

Morgan's face was a canvas of sorts: He had on white makeup, with black and red eye and lip outlines. He wore layers of black clothing, and had long, dyed black hair.

Morgan said he was a fan of Renaissance art, and particularly admires Michelangelo's ``David.''

``I think if you could see `David' you'd understand. He has every single vein in David's arm. I know how frustrating it can be to finish a piece. I know he must have been frustrated a lot.''

Morgan lives and breathes his work, and believes in the power of art.

``Really, when you look at history, artists are the ones who tell people what's wrong and what needs to be fixed. I think artists can see things better than most people.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

With high-profile awards and exposure as the lure, 616 students and

their friends and family members spent a spring-like Saturday in

Scope's convention hall Saturday checking out the region's top high

school art at Student Gallery '97.

Graphic

STUDENT GALLERY '97

PRELIMINARY WINNERS

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]