Lauren Castellano, a third-grader at the Millstone Township Elementary School, was named Artist of the Week during February in a national contest sponsored by Artsonia and Dick Blick. The necklace Lauren is wearing has a picture of her winning artwork. MILLSTONE — During the morning announcements at the Millstone Township Elementary School, art teacher Shannon Bell proudly announced the news that thirdgrader Lauren Castellano had been named an Artist of the Week for Artsonia.
The honor came during the week of Valentine’s Day in February.
In the category of prekindergarten through third grade, Lauren’s artwork was one of 12 pieces randomly chosen out of 100,000 art projects that were uploaded on the Internet for the contest sponsored by Artsonia and Dick Blick.
Once Lauren’s art was posted online, people voted for the finalists. Lauren garnered more than 2,700 votes, making her a winner.
“I explained the basics of the contest over the [public address system] and gave a big shout out to Lauren,” Bell said. “I told the students about the prize she had won for herself and also for our school.”
Lauren was moved by the support she received.
“I felt happy [to win],” the youngster said. “It made me feel more excited about art.”
Upon being named Artist of the Week, Lauren received a plaque from Artsonia with her artwork printed on it, a $50 gift card to a Dick Blick art supply store, and $100 for the Dick Blick school art program.
Lauren was able to purchase a necklace that displayed her artwork through Artsonia.
“What a great memento it is of this award,” Bell said. “This award went to such a hardworking student who really loves art. I had a really proud teacher moment.”
Bell said Lauren’s win was exciting for the school’s art program.
It took two weeks for Lauren to create her work of art. She said it was difficult to get positive and negative space into each section of the work with scissors, as per the instructions for this particular project.
The winning artwork was an extension of a color theory project, Bell said. The third-graders studied colors and their relationships to one another. In this project, students reviewed complementary colors in the color wheel. Color theory is important as students’ progress through their art studies because color use and color mixing are so important in artwork, according to Bell.
Lauren chose scissors to trace on her color wheel and added complementary colors in each section, also showing positive and negative space.
“Lauren is a hard-working artist and truly took her time to color this well and to create a thoughtful composition,” Bell said.
Artsonia gives students an opportunity to upload art to the Internet and to share their work with friends, family members and the community.
“There has been such a positive response to Artsonia,” Bell said. “Parents love being able to see artwork and share it with the rest of the family, and the students take great pride and ownership in their artwork because it is being viewed by a much larger audience.
“For Lauren’s artwork to be randomly chosen was so exciting. I was thrilled to share the excitement with teachers and parents in the district. To see people rally behind Lauren and the art program was awesome.
“People shared with friends and family through Facebook and email and with their support we were able to win this contest. I can’t wait for another of our fantastic Millstone artists to have their artwork featured.”