Daniel Estrada’s black-and-white artwork proved to be the worthy of winning the Artsonia national “Artist of the Week” award for the week of Oct. 25 through Oct. 31.
Artsonia is a website that allows teachers and parents to submit students’ work from the United States and around the world. Daniel is an eighth grader at West New York Middle School. With 811 votes, Daniel was chosen as the winner for the seventh through ninth grade category.
Daniel’s art teacher, Sarah Chrystal, said she is particularly proud of him. “If only all students could be like him,” she smiled.
She added, “I always submit work for the contest. I received an email that Daniel was a finalist. Once I found that out, I spread the word.”
Chrystal notified all the teachers, the principal, and the assistant principal to encourage them to vote.
Daniel Estrada won a $50 gift certificate. His teacher won a $100 certificate for supplies.
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The contest makes it easy for teachers to present their students’ work via an online application that allows for the creation of a gallery. Teachers take a picture of their children’s artwork and upload it to the website. Last year, another student in Chrystal’s class also won.
Winnings
Declaring itself the world’s largest online children’s art museum, Artsonia has received almost a million entries since its creation in 2001.
Every week, teachers submit the work of their students. Forty-eight works are chosen as finalists, 12 from each category level. Anyone can vote on their favorite and submit comments. Votes are tallied and whoever has the most votes wins a $50 gift certificate to Blick Art Materials, an arts supply store. The student also receives a plaque from Artsonia with their name on it. Teachers receive a $100 gift certificate to purchase materials for their class.
In black and white
Daniel, who said he dreams of becoming an architect when he grows up, said he particularly enjoyed the design of the piece he produced.
“The only difficult part was to color it in, because it took a long time,” said Daniel, “about a week.”
“Daniel actually took the time to use a compass and to use the edge of a bowl to get all the curved lines,” said Chrystal. “It took a lot of planning. So he had to sketch it out in pencil first, then, just by using black permanent marker, take the time to color it in extremely neatly. And he did it successfully.”
The type of art that prompted the design of Daniel’s piece is called “op art.”
“We were discussing optical illusions,” said Chrystal. “Black and white really makes it stand out.”
Daniel said that with the money he won, he hopes to buy a sketch pad to draw Manga, or cartoon art.
The winning piece will be on display during West New York’s art month in May.
If you’re a teacher or parent and want to submit your children’s artwork, log on to: www.artsonia.com
Melissa Rappaport may be reached at mrappaport@hudsonreporter.com