By Kelli Henderson/entertainment editor

The winners of TCC’s districtwide art contest have been named, and their pieces are now on display at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center until March 29.

Students from SE, NW, NE and TR campuses entered their work Feb. 15. The judge for the competition, Cohn Drennan, owner of the Cohn Drennan Contemporary art gallery in Dallas, named the winners March 6.

NE student Gregory Arth won second place in the competition and a $400 prize. Arth learned about the competition through his 3-D design course. Having been a painter all his life, he said he wanted to challenge himself and enter a sculpted piece. Because the last time he was in school was in the ’80s, he decided to reinvent himself and get more involved with competitions.

The win was a nice surprise to the artist.

“Because I had been so busy, I missed the email about the VIP party,” Arth said. “I didn’t know

who to talk to, and then one of the kids in our class who won third place, Salvador Rios Jr., came in and said, ‘Hey, you won second place.’ And I said, ‘I did?’ I was thrilled to death.”

Arth’s winning piece, “Icon,” is a two-sided wooden sculpture of a religious icon. The front shows the formal representation of religion and uses symbols like candles and a halo while the back shows the Pagan representation of religion with Mother Earth symbolism and humanistic qualities.

“I’ve always been fascinated with how Christianity overlaid its holidays, its dates for things with the Pagan holidays,” he said. “Because instead of fighting the Pagan holidays, they’ve just usurped the Pagan holidays.”

Arth said the sculpture can seem kind of bizarre, but he just went with his artistic thoughts.

“Sometimes, it is best not to think too much and just go with it and see what happens,” he said. “As an artist, I’ve found over the years that sometimes that’s the best thing you can do. Through serendipity, you discover something new.”

Students were allowed to enter up to three pieces in different categories. NE student Austin Queen won the Margaret Bucklew Advertising Design Award for second place. He had some of his photographs in the first competition in 2007 and returned this year with a graphic design piece and a collage of the human body.

“A lot of times, I feel like we get too caught up with what the person looks like and not so much what is going on in their minds,” Queen said. “So I just kind of thought if I showed a person from the mouth down, you would understand it’s a person, but what makes up their face are their thoughts.”

The acknowledged pieces, which are in the Arts Center, were hung by Devon Nowlin, who facilitated the competition. She said the art is hung to highlight the similarities between students’ works. Though there aren’t specific themes between the art pieces, the students have used similar techniques and forms in creating.

“These [pieces] show a strong interest in representational techniques, narratives, the exploration of the figure and the images that combine elements of abstraction in interesting ways that expand the expressive qualities that these artists are striving for,” she said.

The Fort Worth Community Arts Center is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.