Five students who attend the University High School of Science and Engineering were selected to participate in the 50th Annual Hartford Youth Art Renaissance. Each student had a piece of artwork chosen to be displayed in the art showcase. The students selected include Ani McRavin ‘24, Justin Chidozie ‘23, Oscar Wong ‘23, Gabe Harris ‘23, and Malaysia Delaine ‘24.

The artwork was displayed at the Wadsworth Atheneum throughout the month of May, and the students were honored at a reception at the museum on May 17.

“Simply described its desert and sunset themed, In reality, I was trying to mix different yellows, oranges, and browns, to give it a sense of depth and distance in between. So that people can tell which dunes are in front or in the back.” Harris said when describing his artwork. “I added the sunset because I wanted to make something unique.”

Harris was extremely surprised when being chosen. He was even more surprised that this piece of his artwork was chosen as he feels that to him other pieces of his artwork were better than the one that was chosen. He is happy either way and feels good for being chosen at all.

“Mine was basically a brick wall of inspirational things. For example, my mosaic was based on Erykah Badu, so I took multiple pictures of her.” McRavin said when describing her artwork. “Her whole thing is spirituality and embracing black women. So I decided to add a group of black girls looking up at her and pointing.”

When she was chosen she was surprised but she really liked her design and how Mr. Ritchers saw her message in it. She was glad to be chosen.

When Wong was describing his artwork he said, “The art was for when we were studying surrealism. So what I did was I took an ocean with a giant faucet pouring water into the ocean, where people are being drowned. I just thought it looked cool.”

When asked about how he felt when being chosen he said he was surprised that he and the other students were being considered for the showcase.