On January 23, three Central students: Destinee Brown, Janetth Colunga, and Khloi Sandidge, were all chosen for their pieces to be displayed for the Teen Show at the Hunter Museum of Art.

All three students were offered this opportunity by Central’s art instructor, Melissa Hoesman, who believed all of these students were perfect applicants for this competition.

Destinee originally based her piece on a ‘life/death’ perspective, but Ms. Hoesman encouraged her to add more details. After a couple of days of brainstorming, Brown knew how she wanted to portray this message. She decided to add a silhouette, with the goal to loosely represent mother nature. Along with a night/day background that represents beginning and end.

“The whole concept revolved around the circle of life, each element being a part of life and death,” Brown explains. To her, the meaning of her piece is to be able to get through difficult times with a positive outlook, even when things are not the best.

For Khloi Sandidge, the reason behind her work was to put her work out there for others to enjoy. Sandidge also recognized this opportunity as an amazing way to develop her art portfolio. This project made her see how much the people she is surrounded by impact her, and have shaped her into who she is today. Thus basing her piece upon unity and togetherness.

“No matter how different we are and what situations we are in we are still the same,” Khloi says, “we can find unity and peace together.”

The message behind Janetth Colunga’s piece is to not hide behind social media. Colunga received inspiration from VanLanign’s piece titled “Do I Wanna Know”. Colunga’s goal of this piece was to promote online transparency, not allowing social media take over them and compare, judge, or define who someone is.

“Social media impacts and hurts people by comparing themselves, defining themselves, and judging themselves,” she says.

These students spent an immense amount of time developing their work and plan to continue their hard work in the future college endeavors.