2024 MAEA Recognitions Exhibit

Organization or School Affiliation: Groton-Dunstable Regional High School

Student Name: Gabrielle Norris
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: In this piece, I depicted a panicked man running from a bright neon-pink light while also being illuminated by an overhead neon-green light. I wanted to experiment with how to use perspective in an illustration, and I also wanted to use very harsh neon lighting from more than one source to bring out the futuristic and tech-like aspect of the world.
Teacher: Rebecca Kostich

Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School

Student Name: Sydney Lozano
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: This is a family recipe that we eat around holidays. It’s my favorite dish that my mom makes that reminds me of home. Oxtail is a traditional Jamaican dish. It is oxtail, green onions, garlic, pimento seeds, thyme, and tomato cooked down into a heavenly stew. I wanted to represent the process of the dish being made without saying what it is in it, so that you could let the piece speak for itself
Teacher: Veronique Latimer

Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School

Student Name: Keira Moretz
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: In this piece, I wanted to reflect the frivolous but extravagantly beautiful nature of the Gilded Age, inspired by historical sheet music from the 1890s.The style of the period reflects the desire for social prosperity among the elite of society. While the balls and lavish lifestyle eventually fell out of fashion, we can still appreciate their beauty and artistry.
Teacher: Veronique Latimer

Organization or School Affiliation: Wayland High School

Student Name: Annika O'Steen
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: With unconventional materials I formed a self-portrait focusing on monochromatic objects serving as details of a larger, colorful work. Experimenting with found objects to represent color and texture was exciting. I explored the possibility of each item, emphasizing the unexpected ways my materials brought something to life. Recycling bits of one life to build it into another was most rewarding.
Teacher: Veronique Latimer

Organization or School Affiliation: Pembroke High School

Student Name: Sophia Hall
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: Stella is a Native Hawaiian character from my favorite music album, Hawaii Part II. This is her illustrated character sheet that includes a short backstory, bold color palette to describe her personality, proud facial expressions, graceful poses and rounded contour shapes to show that she is caring and grounded with solid footing. I hope to one day share this work in an animated series.
Teacher: Jessica Lazarus

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Anna Michaelidis
Grade: Grade 10
Artist Statement: I made this artwork because I wanted to learn about pixel art. Growing up, I would see a lot of video games in this style. I used a grid in Adobe Illustrator and filled each box with a different color. This artwork depicts a warm day in the spring. It is important to me because spring is my favorite season and I captured all the elements colorful flowers, birds, and a sunrise.
Teacher: Saquora Lowe-McLaurin

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Zander Allan
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: This artwork was made because I felt a connection to dystopian societies and sci-fi, and have since I was young. It’s an activism piece on how climate change is detrimental to society and how things may genuinely get to that point if we don’t take action. I intentionally chose a very messy and scraggly style, to really get the point across that it’s an undermined issue.
Teacher: Saquora Lowe-McLaurin

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Edward Connolly
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: I made this artwork because it encompasses my first experience in a movie theater lobby. The memoir surrounds the memory of a drastic change in scenery, experienced at age 4. As vivid as I can remember, the interior was all black with shiny, popping colorful elements like posters, arcades, carpets, and ceiling art which inspired the surreal effects in the piece!
Teacher: Saquora Lowe-McLaurin

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Prima Sripho
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: With this piece, I wanted to make note of certain beauty standards that our societies enforce on young women. Makeup, for some, feels like a temporary front and even heightens our insecurities. There are times when people’s makeup doesn’t really “do” what it’s supposed to, and I wanted to exemplify those days for people and how the quality of those days is brought down just by their makeup.
Teacher: Saquora Lowe-McLaurin

Organization or School Affiliation: Fairhaven High School

Student Name: Alexandra Cousineau
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: Overdoing an over-processing ideas to strive for perfection created a narrow minded perspective. Investigating perfection with intense hatching, contour, and eerie lighting with positive space.
Teacher: Jamie Lynch

Organization or School Affiliation: Fairhaven High School

Student Name: Emily Pedersen
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: This is my first ever painting done using oil paints. It shows a small fox sleeping peacefully in the middle of the woods. I experimented with how I used the brush in order to create different types of texture for both the forest and the fox. I also used different shades of green in order to make the bushes stand out against the grass. The warm orange colors of the fox are used to have it pop from
Teacher: Jamie Lynch

Organization or School Affiliation: Fairhaven High School

Student Name: Madison Akin
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: Sometimes when on a lack of sleep, my mind begins to drift, much like the sea sweeping you under. With this piece I tried to convey the feeling of daydreaming and how my imagination takes me to unfamiliar places.
Teacher: Jamie Lynch

Organization or School Affiliation: Fairhaven High School

Student Name: Emma Bettencourt
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: This painting is a sort of nostalgic piece of me, my mom, and my aunt. It’s oil on paper, and part of an oil paint study I worked on.
Teacher: Jamie Lynch

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Navaeh Larose
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: Black men are held to a horrible standard of not being allowed to cry, which has continued to be passed down through generations. This piece addresses this standard and rebels against it. The purple outline symbolizes the distance between him and his emotions. The tear is made of hot glue to accentuate the heaviness of the emotion. The words Men don't cry being backward defy the standard.
Teacher: Laurie Mead McGrory

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Anna Button
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: I created this piece to show the silliness of being a kid. The angle of the wide, open eyes reminds me of the innocence and imagination young children have. This piece is very special to me as it is of my little cousin and through him I can represent how pure childhood is. I spend a lot of time around kids and I feel that their enthusiasm and hope for life should be shared to make others happy.
Teacher: Laurie Mead McGrory

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Aachal Maharjan
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: The sun reminds me that the dark doesn’t have to be your enemy. When the sun rises or sets, it looks the most beautiful. But,the sun wouldn’t be able to be so stunning without the night. Just like how happiness is not a constant feeling. Yet, if it leaves, it’ll always be back, no matter how long the night feels. It’s helps me take a breath and enjoy the moment.
Teacher: Laurie Mead McGrory

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Bridget Connelly
Grade: Grade 11
Artist Statement: Growing up my sister and I have a pretty significant age gap. Being almost 6 years apart we’ve never got to experience being in school together but throughout the years have grown tremendously close. Some of the highlights of my Falls and late Summers are visiting her at college and attending the Boston College football games. So I’ve created this piece to pay tribute to our friendship.
Teacher: Laurie Mead McGrory

Organization or School Affiliation: North High School

Student Name: Neve Tran
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: Divulging on the concept of home and comfort I played with the idea of the replication of home foods through a restaurant setting to draw my audience in. Throughout the piece, there are Vietnamese dishes, relative to my identity, around the table to portray this state of being at whole and at home, comforted despite not being able to have these warm meals at home.
Teacher: Callie Mulcahy

Organization or School Affiliation: Norwood High School

Student Name: Janiah Harnett
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: My theme is how nature and humans are connected. The roots and hands are parallel, both grab onto things and use them to keep themselves grounded. This piece shows that we all eventually give ourselves back to the earth. I made plaster casts of hands for the roots, newspaper to build the trunk, and made the branches found sticks. I dyed the yarn in different shades of red.
Teacher: Elizabeth Mullaney

Organization or School Affiliation: Pentucket Regional High School

Student Name: Narjis Musa
Grade: Grade 12
Artist Statement: Love & Hate are human traits. Love:platonic,familial,romantic,or in other forms is a universal experience. Symbols of love;Aphrodite, dove, LGBTQIA+ rainbow, & roses. Hate motivates many people in the world & are symbolized by Eris,dark storm clouds,green butterflies,snake, & black roses. Green for jealousy, red,anger & black evil. Love is on the right as it is right. Hate is placed on the left.
Teacher: Marcia Nadeau