December 31, 2004

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Publication Date: Friday, December 31, 2004

Judging Reflections

With up and coming talented artists in our midst, sometimes the decision to choose a few among the many is not easy. That is what we found out recently when four of us at the Pleasanton Weekly were judges in the Pleasanton PTA Council Reflections program.

Reflections is a national PTA program that encourages children to explore in the field of arts. The annual contest begins at the school level with the competition separated by grade, grouping preschool through second grade together in a category called primary; grades 3-5 in intermediate; grades 6-8 in middle; and grades 9-12 in senior.

The competition has four categories: photography, literature, visual arts and musical composition.

Judges for each category at the school level select three entries, giving no regard to first, second or third place positions. Judges do not know the names of the students who submitted the entries.

Those selections from the school level advance to a city level competition. Again, names are concealed and judges in each category are instructed to appraise each entry on its own merits of creativity, artistic merit and interpreting the theme, which this year was "A Different Kind of Hero."

Joining me in judging these entries were Jeb Bing, publisher and editor; Dolores Ciardelli, managing editor; and Shannon Corey, art director. We looked at two categories, photography and visual arts.

Other category judges were Joanne Hall, J. Hall Public Relations; and Catherine Needham, freelance writer, who judged literature; and music teachers Michelle Hatch and Terry Messick, who reviewed the music composition group.

The selected entries we judged at the city level will go forward to county level at the Peralta District, with the top entrants from that competition moving on to the state and national competition.

"Last year we had four schools participate with 161 total entries and 52 entries that advanced to the local PTA Council judging level," said Nancy Krakauer at the PTA Council's award ceremony held Dec. 16.

"This year, eight schools participated with 283 total entries, and 109 entries advanced to the PTA Council judging," she said.

Those 109 entries were narrowed down to 16 entries that will represent Pleasanton at the Peralta District level competition, Krakauer said.

Judging was not easy. Krakauer came to the Pleasanton Weekly office several weeks ago, and one age group at a time, she displayed the students' creative art work in our production room, where we discussed each artwork's merit and originality interpreting the theme.

The talent was obvious with some works of art, vividly colored with markers, crayons or watercolors, instantly catching our eye. In the primary group, one child looked to a music conductor as his or her hero. Music notes sprinkled across a rainbow of colors that swirled around a conductor, who was holding his wand high overhead. One could almost imagine hearing the symphony concerto.

In the intermediate level, I was struck by theme creativity, finding heroes in high-rise construction workers and a mother bird caring for her brood in a nest; we all chuckled at the depiction of a television reporter riding out a storm in a newscast. The clever first-person point of view drawing was complete with the viewer's feet dangling over the edge of the couch and a remote control in hand.

In the end, it was a difficult decision to choose one from the many. All were winners, and to those entries that have advanced, we hope to report Pleasanton winners in the Peralta competition next month.
Winning Reflections

The 2004 Pleasanton PTA Council Reflections winners, their schools and age group are: ¥ Photography: Khoa Do Nguyen, Alisal, primary; Meghana Gauri Vijayraghavan, Vintage Hills, intermediate; Linda Jane Xie, Harvest Park, middle; and Tracy Shawver, Amador Valley, senior. ¥ Literature: Cole Patrick Goetz, Vintage Hills, primary; Martin Daniel Hughes, Walnut Grove, intermediate; Mike Chen, Harvest Park, middle; and William Tanner, Amador Valley, senior. ¥ Visual arts: Megan Min-Yu Tien, Mohr, primary; Jennifer C. Tao, Alisal, intermediate; Adnan Abbuthalha, Harvest Park, middle; and Weiwei Wen, Amador Valley, senior. ¥ Music: William Liu, Mohr, primary; Martin Eric Grant, Walnut Grove, intermediate; Christopher Arkin, Harvest Park, middle; and Aaron Christian Jensen, Amador Valley, senior.

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