Littleton High School is very proud of four talented students, Luci Brendlinger, Oliver Kaminsky, Lyss Rogers, and Zil Torres, whose work was recognized in the 2023 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Out of approximately 5,000 submissions, these pieces were deemed truly exceptional.
We now hear about these pieces from the artists in their own words.
About the Artists
I’m Zil Torres, I am a junior, and I rather like the art classes here. I started doing art around eighth grade, whenever I first arrived here, and I hadn’t actually done much art before then.
Zil Torres
I am Lyss Rogers. I am an artist, currently a high school senior, I have recently been accepted to SAIC, so that’s exciting. Yeah. So that’s a big art college in Chicago.
Lyss Rogers
My name is Luci Brendlinger, I’m a senior at Littleton, and I really enjoy doing art, and that’s how I would be known. I want people to know about me that I enjoy trying new things, and I am heavily involved in studio art, it’s my favorite class that I take. I am in the IB diploma program, and I am looking forward to graduating this spring
Luci Brendlinger
I am Oliver Kaminsky. First year at Littleton.
Oliver Kaminsky
“Everybody’s got to start somewhere.”
I had gotten into art due to my love of reading, however due to a shortage of books, I had to find a new outlet. So, I went to drawing and making my own stories.
Zil Torres
I want to say I first started taking art seriously in Elementary School—like everybody doodles as a little kid, like you have a crayon and a sketchbook, and you go WRRR and nobody knows what it means ‘cause it’s just two-year-old brain jumble. But, yeah, I first started really getting into making art when I was in like, third grade? And it was mostly Pokémon fanart at the time. Everybody’s got to start somewhere.
Lyss Rogers
I grew up doing [art], I think, since I was a very little—since I was, like, a very very little kid. I can’t remember never not wanting to do art. I just never saw it as, like, possible for a profession or something to study until I got older, and then realized, “oh hey, this is something other people do as well.”
Oliver Kaminsky
Gold Key Winners
The piece that won the scholastic award was a useful pot/useless machine. And it was a steampunk ceramic teapot. I had made it out of high-fire clay so that I could use it for food-safe things and I had originally built it up in a similar way as I built my mimbre bowl: it was just a long process of doing details. [I want viewers to notice] all the tiny buttons and nails that I had to hand-put on there and hand-scratch. They took forever, along with the wires.
Zil Torres
It’s an ink on bristol board piece that’s like 9×12. I burnt the edges of it to hell and weathered it a lot, but it’s meant to look like research notes on some creatures. I was originally thinking of it as a cave exploration that they are taking notes on and trying to elaborate on afterward. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with constructed languages, and making the most cryptic [stuff] that I can. So constructed languages are essentially like a script or a spoken language that is entirely fabricated. It doesn’t evolve naturally, you just make one, and then figure out all the structure and the stuff associated with that to try to make it work. Like a conlang. I’m just really happy with the texturing. I did a lot of hatch-shading in it, which I’m very happy with. Just the weathering details as well, I had a lot of fun with the washes and making it look like there was coffee stains, and burnt edges, and stuff. And I honestly–I kind of like confusing people. I think it’s kind of fun that it’s a little weird and hard to explain.
Lyss Rogers
It was actually for a project in the IB studio art curriculum … called 31 Nights, where for 31 nights straight, you have to do an in-depth self-portrait. And it is a nightmare. Everyone in that class dreads it. But it is worth it at the end. At the end of 31 Nights, you do kind of like a massive final self-portrait, so that’s what that was: a very liberal self-portrait. It’s difficult to say because that piece … wasn’t initially meant for other people to really look at and view. I think if you look at it I prefer if you just wondered what it meant because – I’m not sure if you’ve seen it– but there are scars and dates, and zip codes, all over it, and it’s a very personal piece and I’m not going to elaborate on any of them.
Oliver Kaminsky
Okay, so, it’s titled Dainty Green Eyes, and pretty much it’s my first big self-portrait. I did it, it’s acrylic on canvas. I guess the meaning behind it was kind of just to do a study on myself and, you know, learn about myself, reconnect with myself. … I spent so much time looking at references of myself and I kind of like, reconnect with like, the physical appearance of myself and then also the emotional appearance of myself when I’m making it. I want them to notice the importance of the contrast between the green eyes that I created and the really kind of romantic red background. I love my eyes, and that’s what I wanted people to notice, is that it’s a feature that I appreciate about myself. I just want them to know that – oh gosh, that’s a hard one– not necessarily that I want them to know anything, but that I want them to be open to their own interpretation but also consider my insight and things that I’ve said in this interview about reconnecting with yourself through art.
Luci Brendlinger
