By Timothy Churchill,Staff Writer

PARIS – Ten graphic arts students at Oxford Hills Technical School won several awards recently at the annual Maine Printing and Design Expo.

The competition was held April 15 at Verrillo’s Convention Center in Portland. Six Maine schools participated in four major categories, according to Virginia Valdes, who teaches design, computer graphics and photography at the technical school. Richard Cormier teaches printing at the school.

“I didn’t really think I’d win, there was a lot of stuff we competed against,” said senior Joshua Day, winner of two first-place printing awards for multisheet format and screen printing.

Many of the artworks honored demonstrate the students’ ability to grapple with complex and compelling subject matter and show distinctive artistic visions.

Senior Danielle Hall won third place for illustration/photography for her “Tower of Light,” an image of a common fluorescent ceiling light taken at an unusual angle, thus transforming it into something unrecognizable. Her work suggests that imagination can turn the everyday objects into engaging artworks by approaching them in unique ways. As Hall notes in her project description, “In the end, the picture no longer looked like the light in the ceiling but a well lit skyscraper in the darkness of night.”

Hall acknowledged that her work is not intended as social commentary, but a few of the other students won for works that are.

Juniors Fletcher Curran, Chris Boutros, Preston Haynes and Travis Brown won first place in design categories of poster and illustration/photography, as well as Best in Show for their collaborative four-page spread, “Dresscode.”

In a description of their work, the artists say the “spread we designed is all about how fashion plays too big a part in a teenager’s life. Our target was high school kids which is why we used a lot of doodling and sketches similar to what you would see in a kid’s notebook.”

Curran said the poster was meant to illustrate not only the time, but also the money his classmates spend on maintaining a hip personal appearance.

“Being cool isn’t cheap,” he said. That’s especially true, Boutros added, since, to a large extent, “corporations determine what is cool.”

Doing her own sort of social commentary, senior Lynne Hazelton, winner of second place in illustration/photography, said the theme of her project, “Masks,” is how people wear different personalities in shifting social circumstances. The mask is “the person that you show yourself to be” despite who you actually are, she said.

Asked whether she thought her fellow students would engage with her artwork, Hazelton said, “In high school to pretend to be someone your not is extremely relevant.”

Teacher Valdes said she was proud of her students. The competition, she said, gave them “exposure,” adding that, since some of her students want to continue with graphic arts, “it was good for them to get experience.”

Other winners were Annie Foster and Whitney Ward, who tied for second place for poster design, and senior Darryl Collins who won a second place in printing for single color on fabric.