News : 3 in a row for VSHS Art program: Brinkley Gerber wins WaMaC 3D Best of Show

Brinkley Gerber holds her WAMAC Art Fair awards as well as the project that won them.

Brinkley Gerber's ceramic leopard won 'Best of Show' in the WaMaC Art Fair last week.

Stephanie Berry, Liz Fischer and Hannah Leichsenring were among VSHS students honored at WaMaC.

Stephanie Berry's wolf earned third place in ceramics.

Liz Fischer won 2nd place honors in 3D with this sculpture.

For the third year in a row, the WaMaC Art Fair 3D Best of Show winner was a Vinton-Shellsburg art student.

This year's winner at the event on Tuesday was Brinkley Gerber. She received "Best of Show 3-D" and also earned first in ceramic sculpture. She showed a large ceramic leopard lying down. Instead of painting the spots she made loops of clay that created actual holes where the spots would be.

"I took a 3 - D 2 art class 1st trimester with Ms. Diedrichsen," says Brinkley. "Our assignment was to make a clay project of our choice. I didn't know what to make so I looked through an art book for an idea. I saw a picture of a leopard and I liked how the colors defined it. I took a large piece of clay and started molding it. I decided I would have the spots be holes in the sculpture rather than paint the spots on."

Liz Fisher and Stephanie Berry took 2nd and 3rd place in the same category, giving the VS art program a sweep in 3D. Liz made a large animal that had the body of a fox and the head like the skeletal remains of a prehistoric bird. Stephanie's work was a large wolf textured with stylized clumps of fur and painted with the moon and the night sky.

Brelynn Beck received 2nd in "Utilitarian Ceramics" with a raku-fired lantern. Hannah Leichsenring took 2nd in "Non-Ceramic Sculpture" with a paper mache head covered with other heads. Karissa Davis received 3rd place in the same category with a dancing woman made of colored wires.

Twenty students from from each school in our district participated in this year's event.

In 2010, VSHS student Dylan Vaugn won Best of Show in the 3D category. Meghan Owens won the 3D top honor in 2011, while Emily Miller also won the Best of Show in 2D that year.