Braden Duncan doesn’t mind being one-of-a-kind.
When the graduating senior – represented at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts this week with other award-winning students – ran out of high school art classes, she crafted an independent study.
“I sit in on (basic) Drawing I and II classes,” Duncan said. “Last year I did an independent study in Drawing III.”
BHS art teacher Sissel Ferroy looks out for the rare student who has completed all the beginning classes and is ready for advanced work.
In Duncan, she saw a student working at a level well beyond the coursework of the drawing classes in which she was actually enrolled.
“As a teacher, you put 30 kids in and out on the basics,” Ferroy said, “but when you see a student that has that inspiration, that love of materials, that’s what keeps you going.”
Duncan believes that sitting in on less advanced classes has benefitted both herself and the other students.
“I get inspired by how far I’ve come,” she said, “And they get to see what I can do now.”
The young artists doesn’t look to others’ work for ideas, but finds plenty of material generated by her own imagination.
“My inspiration is basically myself,” Duncan said.
An inspired self-portrait won an award at the recent Bainbridge High School Spring Arts Festival.
The artist looked to her family tree for the subject matter of her other winning work, a piece exhibited at BAC.
The work, titled “A Lonely Vigil,” is a painstakingly detailed drawing in colored pencil of her brother wearing a kilt.
Celtic knots and other similarly-inspired designs that reflect the family’s Scottish origins embellish the work.
The two-by-three-foot drawing of her brother in Celtic garb actually began as a plain photograph.
“I took a black and white photograph of my brother without any idea when I started what direction the drawing would go,” Duncan said.
“Drawings kind of develop themselves.”
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Award-winning student artworks from the annual Bainbridge High School Spring Arts Festival are on view at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts from May 30 to June 9. An artists’ gallery talk is slated for 2 p.m. June 6.
Call 842-3132 for information.
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This week, Bainbridge Arts and Crafts celebrates young artists in an exhibit of award-winning student work from the Bainbridge High School May Arts Festival.
At the festival, BAC awards went to Brighid Kennedy, Julia Buckwater, Mackenzie Berg, Nicole Hamberg, Laura Rundberg, Kara Smith; Patrick Snyder, Morgan Gardella, Alexandra Winnichi, Megan Henderson, Alexandria Crocket, Marissa Gilbert, Nick Ziakin, Amanda Johncock, Toren Johnson, Christen Faltermeier, Dylan Cool, Alden Mackey, Stephanie Bohnert Caitlin Holliday and Amanda Horike.
