By Ashley Bradley/ne news editor

The TCC district student art competition awarded six winners, eight merit awards and five honorable mentions March 27 at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center.

Education curator Terri Thornton made the final placements and said it was a hard decision. After viewing all 102 pieces on display in the gallery, she said, the ones awarded prizes were the pieces that made her think.

“Art is a demonstration of skill about ideas,” she said. “Those of you that got

awards, it’s mainly because I could see those ideas.”

She said every art piece worth a second look is based on the artist’s attention to detail in its entirety.

“Everything has to be intentional,” she said.

NE student Kerry Butcher took home Best of Show for her photograph “Pottery House Panorama.” The award included $1,000 and publication in an art appreciation textbook.

Butcher said she was surprised to win the award. Two days before the submission deadline, her professor, Richard Doherty, helped her look through her material to pick her strongest piece. She said she ended up using the print because it spoke to her.

“It’s nostalgic and makes me think of many things in my life,” she said. “It reminds me of all the ornaments in our lives.”

The print was taken with a color Polaroid SX-70, or a “toy camera.” Because the print is developed immediately, the image does strange things, Butcher said. She planned to take a panoramic picture and drove around searching for the perfect spot.

“It had just been raining and was really dreary outside,” she said. “It was a happy accident. I loved it more the way it came out than the way I intended.”

She said she wants all of her images to mean something to her because if it doesn’t mean anything to her, then it won’t mean anything to anyone else.

“It was something someone could look at and take something away from,” she said.

NW student Attachareepon Watson won third place with her painting “Light Conversation.” She received a $100 gift card to Asel Art. She said she worked on the piece for four weeks, six hours a week, equaling 30 hours total.

“I took a photo and played with color composition,” she said. “It’s a peaceful story when we look at the light coming in from a door or a window, and that was the main idea.”

Santos Venturo won first place for his 3-D art piece “Untitled,” which was purchased for $500. Creating the piece in his Design II class, he used wires and zip lines, and it took him two weeks to create.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” he said.

Venturo had another piece in the gallery and expected it to get more attention. Also “Untitled,” it centers on a social issue. He said one morning he read in The Dallas Morning News that monarch butterflies migrate between Texas and Mexico.

“Why are butterflies allowed to go wherever they want, but human beings aren’t?” he said.

Venturo also said he doesn’t like to name his works simply because they don’t need one.

“I don’t like to name my paintings,” he said. “So you can interpret it however you want to.”

When Thornton addressed the artists at the awards ceremony, she said everyone should know everything they want to know because of current technology. She said if artists want to create something, but lack the knowledge, they should do whatever they can to gain it. Thornton advised students to read everything they can as often as they can.

Thornton said she was impressed by all the entries, even those that didn’t place awards.

“All of you should be proud of yourselves for being in the exhibition,” she said.