Red Bank Art Student Honored with Silver Key Award

Ranney School student Caitlin Mullally ’15 (Red Bank) was recently granted the Silver Key Award from the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. A jury of professional artists, curators and art educators spent more than 30 hours reviewing 3,400-plus works of art submitted by more than 900 individual student artists from across northern New Jersey. Caitlin’s piece, “Soldier,” was recognized in the Mixed Media/Art Category of the competition.

On Feb. 12, 2013, Caitlin joined the other winners and honorable mention recipients in their respected categories for an awards ceremony and reception held at the Montclair Art Museum. Caitlin was proud to see her World War II inspired piece exhibited in a slide presentation projected on screen in the museum’s large program hall.

“The man in my art piece is a veteran of World War II,” she explained. “It portrays wreckage and details from the War. I saw the picture of the veteran pilot through a book and decided to use it as inspiration for my work.” Although the creativity of the piece is apparent, its true beauty and unique characteristics are discovered up close, where the different materials used by Caitlin, such as newspaper, paint and oil pastels, can be seen clearly. “It was a lot of fun and allowed me to explore my creativity and the different materials. It was time-consuming and took a lot of work but it was well worth it,” added Caitlin.

The project was the first assignment of the year for the Mixed Media class taught by Fine Arts Department Chair Kate Greenberg. Ms. Greenberg commented that, “The Art Department is thrilled that Caitlin has been acknowledged and honored by the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. This is a highly selective competition and Caitlin is one of the most dedicated young artists I have taught in my 16 years of teaching at Ranney School. It is an award richly deserved and we are so proud of her.”

With hopes to pursue her passion for art in the future, Caitlin continues to enjoy the art courses at Ranney, specifically because of the variety and wide selection of curriculum to choose from. After taking Art Principles as a freshman, she decided she wanted to take more art electives. By taking advantage of Fine Arts courses in Ranney’s Summer Program www.ranneyschool.org/summerprograms as well, she honed her skills in ceramics and printmaking, allowing her to enroll in advanced courses this school year. “This award has motivated me to submit more work, and I encourage other students to do the same, regardless of their age or skill level,” said Caitlin. “Ms. Greenberg is so helpful, she is always there to give advice and support her students in all they do, from start to finish.”