Vineyard students, parents and community members celebrated the artistic achievement of three high school seniors at the Old Sculpin gallery on Sunday.
Each year, the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association (MVAA) chooses two scholarship recipients and one alternate to have their work displayed at the gallery. This year the committee selected Grazina Biskis and Ian Patricio alongside alternate Adriana Young.
Sunday’s exhibition showcased a dynamic selection of mediums, styles and themes. Melinda Fager, who helped lead the selection committee, traced the scholarship’s roots back to when the organization first formed. Founded by the group of artists who bought the building that sits beside Memorial Wharf in Edgartown from boat builder Manuel Swartz Roberts, the organization has always been dedicated to supporting the next generation of talent.
“They wanted this to be a center open to the arts,” Ms. Fager said. “They wanted to showcase Island artists, and they wanted to give scholarships to high school students who were planning to continue to pursue the arts.”
This year, she added, “there were more people applying than ever.”
Three students stood out for their talent, passion and story,” Ms. Fager said.
Ms. Biskis displayed a collection of intricately painted ceramics, though she admitted that showcasing her personal creations in such a public setting felt almost counterintuitive.
“The whole point of me doing a lot of this is because I like to have a place to go on my own,” she said.
Still, she was proud of the work she displayed and believed it served as a fitting representation of her identity and interests. In addition to ceramics, Ms. Biskis enjoys agriculture, a passion she brought into her artwork by including fresh flowers in her exhibit.
Her favorite piece in the collection was the one that didn’t go as planned, an urn with flower designs etched into the sides.
“But that’s kind of what I like about it, is that it didn’t turn out how I thought it would but I still really love the end product,” she said.
After graduation, Ms. Biskis will either attend Evergreen State College or take a gap year to continue her work at Tea Lane Farm. She hopes to dedicate time to both pottery and farming in her future studies.
Mr. Patricio focused on a unifying theme for his collection.
“I really wanted to go for a theme of intimacy,” he said, which to him means closeness and vulnerability. The work he displayed depicted subjects and scenes in dark graphite, with pops of color adding contrast to certain pieces.
“I like doing a lot of graphite work, mainly because it’s such an accessible and easy medium, but you can get so much out of it,” he said.
This fall, he will study communication design at the Massachusetts School of Art and Design. He hopes to continue pursuing art after college, possibly working with a magazine.
For Adriana Young, the feeling of being recognized by MVAA hadn’t yet sunk in.
“It’s really weird, I’m going be honest,” she admitted. She’s been making art her whole life, but it was still surreal to see her vibrant acrylic paintings mounted on the gallery walls.
Ms. Young said she used this series as an opportunity to let loose and experiment. Art can get stressful if you overthink it, she said, so for this occasion, she just wanted to have fun.
“At the end of it, it’s just what you make of it.”
Ms. Young didn’t expect to go to college at an art school, but when the Rhode Island School of Design accepted her into their program, she was ecstatic.
“I remember I just refreshed the page five times,” she said, recalling the moment she opened her acceptance letter. “I was like, this cannot be right.”
Melinda Fager believes it is scholarships such as these that instill enough confidence in young artists to “stay with it.” It encourages them to continue studying art, and to consider rejoining the Vineyard’s artist community after college.
“We even hope that they might come back.”
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