A Lord Botetourt High School sophomore has become the first Botetourt County student to be awarded National Medalist honors by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Natalie Emerson of Troutville learned that her ceramic “Leaf it to the light” art project was selected for exhibit at the Rockefeller Center in New York City. On top of that, her work received not only a Gold National Medal, it was also awarded the American Visions Medal. The awards are selected by panels of creative professionals and identifies Emerson as one of the most talented young artists in the nation.
This year, nearly 350,000 works of art and writing were submitted for the 95th Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Fewer than 1 percent were recognized at the national level. The awards mean Emerson will attend ceremonies in New York City June 6-8. Following the ceremonies, her artwork will go on a two-year “Art.Write.Now. Tour” that’s produced and presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. That tour selects 50 Gold Medalists from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for the tour.
Her “Leaf it to the light” is a small ceramic box she created with inspiration from her late grandfather, Carl Smith of Troutville, who passed away two years ago. “His favorite song was ‘Falling Leaves,’” Emerson explained. Her ceramic box is decorated with leaves, and openings in the leaves and other holes in the box let the light shine through.
“He would have been very proud of her,” Mom Valerie Emerson explained.
Natalie Emerson has seemed to always had an interest in art. In elementary school, she was in the gifted program for art, and at Central Academy Middle School she enjoyed Mark Woodie’s art classes.
At Lord Botetourt, she’s in her second 3D art class with instructor Ingrid Chase. She took art foundation as a freshman, then 3D Art I last semester when she created “Leaf it to the light.” She’s taking 3D Art II this semester and plans on taking 2D Art I and II as a junior. She hopes to take an advanced art program as a senior that will help her get into college.
“Natalie is an exceptional student,” Chase said. “While only a sophomore, her sophisticated eye for design, her attention to detail, and her superior craftsmanship elevates her work to a professional level.
Chase describers her as “a very self-sufficient student. After watching demonstrations on techniques, she quickly learns the processes and applies them with ease.”
Chase said, “What sets this seemingly simple box apart from other student work is— initially— her attention to craft. In a world of mass-produced objects, seeing something skillfully made by hand speaks to something basic in our human nature.
“After constructing the basic functional form, Natalie does what is also a part of our human nature— embellishing. She adds beauty to function,” Chase continued. “Natalie’s surfaces become a canvas that she carves, pierces, impresses or adds detail on to. Finally, she chooses glaze and surface treatments that are elegant in their simplicity.
“This award is a great honor and will open many doors for Natalie’s future. It will be exciting to see what Natalie will create during her next two years at Lord Botetourt.”
Chase noted that the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have recognized creative teenagers from across the country since 1923. “By receiving a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards National Gold Medal, Natalie joins a legacy of celebrated authors and artists including Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and the renowned author and illustrator who will receive our Alumni Achievement Award this year, Marc Brown.”
According to the awards program, Gold and American Visions Medals have only been awarded to Virginia students in the ceramics and glass category three times since 2010.
Emerson has at least for now mapped out a future that includes art. Like her mother, an elementary school teacher, Natalie says she’d like to teach art— only on the university level. “My favorite thing to do, is I want to inspire people,” she explains, “I’d like to be a professor.”
Ceramics is her favorite and expects artistic pottery to be in her future.
Her medal-winning ceramic box was created from a clay slab that she rolled out. From that, she created the pattern with foam, then used that to create the box. She cut out the leaves and other details and did the piercing to create the lantern effect.
That was followed by coloring and glazing that show the definition in the piece.
To reach the national judging, “Leaf it to the light” had to make it through regional judging that was held at Pulaski High School. Her piece earned a Gold Key in the regional and was one of five pieces of artwork selected for national judging.
The Gold National Medals are awarded to the most outstanding works in the nation, and the American Visions Medal is a “Best in Show’ award that most exemplifies “originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.”
Her three days in New York include a stay at The Roosevelt Hotel where the first day she will get photographed and meet the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards team. That’s followed by a parent/student reception with The Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, then a “Maker Prom” with a DJ, refreshments and interactive making stations presented by creative arts organizations.
National Medalists go through a ceremony rehearsal on June 7 before the official awards ceremony that evening at Carnegie Hall.
On June 8, there’s an educators breakfast and later in the day the Art.Write.Now.2018 National Exhibition and Student Showcase opens at the Shelia C. Johnson Design Center Parsons, School of Design at The New School and at the Pratt Institute’s Pratt Manhattan Gallery. Student artwork, writing and film will be on exhibit and performed at the exhibition and showcase.
That’s where Emerson will get a chance to explain her “Leaf it to the light.”
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were founded by Maurice R. Robinson “…to give those high school students who demonstrate superior talent and achievement in things of the spirit and of the mind at least a fraction of the honors and rewards accorded to their athletic classmates for demonstrating their bodily skills.”
According to its website, each year, increasing numbers of teens participate in the program, and become a part of the art and writing community— young artists and writers, filmmakers and photographers, poets and sculptors, video game artists and science fiction writers, along with countless educators who support and encourage the creative process.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers’ mission is to identify students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and present their work to the world through the awards program. This year, 350,000 pieces of work were presented in 29 different categories of art and writing.
Natalie is the daughter of Valerie and Greg Emerson of Troutville.
