To Douglas High School senior and sculptor Preston Winkelman, the symbol of a heart has been used so much in society that its significance has become trite, prosaic, in need of reinvention.
"The heart looked like a simple figure, but I wanted to throw some personality into it," the 17-year-old said Tuesday. "I didn't want the same old heart."
Winkelman's heart series consists of five sculptural versions of the popular symbol. On one heart, he wrote a song he'd written on his acoustic guitar called "What is this?" Another heart is held together by thread.
"I let myself and my mind go," he said. "I wanted my own personality to make them different."
For his work, Winkelman was awarded a gold key in the 2010 regional Scholastic Art contest, which is sponsored and judged every year by the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno.
This year, there were more than 1,100 entries in drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture, among other categories. Ten Douglas High School students and six students from Carson Valley Middle School and Whittell High School won gold and silver keys for 24 individual and portfolio art pieces.
"I'm really proud of them," said Douglas High art teacher Kelley Yost. "The competition was really stiff this year."
Yost is one of five art teachers in the district who had students place in the competition. Others include K.C. Brennan and Rita Borselli of Douglas High, Christine Groman of Carson Valley Middle School and Jane Oling-Greenard of Whittell High.
"We have some repeat winners who've learned from the experience," Yost said. "Their work gets stronger each year."
Sixteen-year-old junior Elspeth Summersgill, who won last year, took two silver keys this time around for her black-and-white photography.
"Love is beautiful" is an outside shot of Elspeth's two engaged friends, one of whom is now in Iraq. "Sitting alone in a lonely room" is an indoor self-portrait.
"I was just in that artsy mood," Summersgill said of the latter piece.
She said she's been involved with photography for three years and wants to continue on to art school.
"It's the one thing that makes me happier than anything else," she said.
Gold key works will be exhibited at the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 West Liberty St., March 6-April 3. Silver key works will be displayed as a revolving digital slide show.
Silver key, ninth-12th-grade: Selena Kaffer (mosaic), Kyle Krupp (ceramics), Kena Longabaugh (two awards, photography), Gina Sipin (two awards, printmaking), Elspeth Summersgill (two awards, photography), Ben Syang (ceramics), Savannah Timperio (ceramics), and Jaclyn Zusi-Russell (two awards, individual photography and photography portfolio).
Gold key, ninth-12th-grade: Kena Longabaugh (two awards, individual photography and photography portfolio), Kegan Rahe (printmaking), Savannah Timperio (ceramics) and Preston Winkelman (sculpture).
Silver key, seventh-eighth-grade: Michael Gardner (two awards, drawing and ceramics), Abigail Killebrew (painting), Stephanie Trackman (digital art), Jamie Walden (film and animation), and Payton Williams (film and animation).
Gold key, seventh-eighth-grade: Kevin Jameson (sculpture).
