By Natalie Enriquez
The All High School Art contest was held at the Creative Center in Downtown Visalia and it is held once a year. It is a competition and this year they had 300 people enter. Four judges went through and narrowed it down to 125 people that they allowed in the exhibit. Out of the 125 students, Diego Chirinos ‘24 had won best in show in all of the categories.
The different categories consisted of different art mediums, painting with the subsections of acrylic, oil, and gouache, and drawing with subsections of pen and pencil, there was also 3D art such as sculptures and paper mache.
Chirinos says he had to “Have an art piece, then get a form to fill out where you fill out your name, the title of the piece, the category, like the medium, and then a price” when entering into the contest.
“First I gathered some references and then drew something based off that. Over the course of the next month and a half, I would work it in class, adding more and more detail until I finished.”
Chririnos says that he was mostly just surprised when he found out that he had made the top selection of 125 people since he didn’t expect to make it to the top wins. “I don’t know what the other pieces looked like, so I don’t feel like I deserved the top spot.”
Chirinos was given a glass trophy, a certificate, and $100 to spend on art supplies as his prizes for winning best in show.
“The reason I had gotten into art in the first place was because of my dad, but then seeing other artists online, I wanted to do that too and currently it’s just my art friends, my art teacher, and just other artists online.”
He says that he does plan on selling his artwork since someone had placed an offer of $1,000. His mom was really happy for him when she found out he had won best of show.
Steve Harris, Studio Art 1 and 2 teacher here at Redwood High School, says that “Diego is a really neat student to have because he really liked the subject and he was one of those kids that was just willing to learn and, so he would take advice and then ask when he needed more advice, and always constantly improving.”
Mr. Harris said that he was not surprised when Chirinos entered the art contest, in fact, he had helped him enter. He says that it was “pretty wild” when Diego won best-of-show. “I expected a first, second, or third in the pen and ink category and he got best in show so that was really neat,” Mr. Harris says.
Mr. Harris says that one of the judges had talked to him about Chirinos’ artwork and told him that it was the amount of detail he had put in that made him win best in show. Since Chirinos did pen and ink, there was a lot of hatching and cross-hatching, which is a drawing technique, to create lights and darks, which is called value. “The lines were just so incredibly perfect and he had over forty hours of work into that piece.”
Mr. Harris would like to tell Chirinos to “keep going man” since Chirinos wants to be a tattoo artist someday. “Keep going with the arts and then learn some business when you go to college, take some business courses, and then go out there and open up your own tattoo business.”
Chirinos’ artwork along with his Best in Show certificate:
Natalie Enriquez
Natalie Enriquez, '24, is in her second year of writing for the Redwood Gigantea. Outside of journalism, she likes to pass time reading or listening to music. Natalie hopes to make her time, as well as others, at Redwood High School fun and memorable.
Tags: Art class, art contest, artist, arts, arts and entertainment, Best over all, clubs & lifestyles, Diego, Diego Chirinos, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, redwood sports, rhs, visalia ca, winner