Students Place Nationally in Art Competition

By: Staff Writer Andrew Kan

Gloria Yang and Vicky Lin, both freshmen at MSJ, won top 10 for North America’s regional office in United Nations Environment Programme’s 24^th International Children’s Painting Competition (ICPC).  Yang won first place, and Lin was a runner-up.

The ICPC is an annual international art competition, with this year having 62,999 submissions from 66 countries.  Each year, there is a specific theme for the paintings.  This year’s theme was sustainable energy which challenged participants to depict the benefits of sustainable energy and energy efficiency.  The competition opened on March 13, 2015 and the deadline for submissions was May 31, 2015.

After submission, the paintings are judged by six regional offices.  The North American regional office chooses one first-place winner and 10 runner-ups for the online voting round.  This year, 53 paintings were shortlisted into the online voting round, which ends on October 15, 2015.  In the online voting round, voters vote for their top five favorite paintings.  In total, 10 paintings pass this round.  The final paintings are then judged by judges form UNEP and Alsayer & Foundation for Global Peace and the Environment who rank three of them as global winners.

Yang’s painting (number 11 on the ICPC voting website) features a girl with a mini toy windmill running down a hill.  Everything the girl has already run past (on the right) is clean and good.  On the other hand, everything the girl has not run past (on the left) is polluted and cramped.  Yang wanted to show that “if kids and adults work hard enough, we can turn everything (that’s bad) good again.”  Yang did not expect to win first place in North America this year, but was a runner-up for North America and placed 5^th globally last year.

Lin’s painting (number 51 on the ICPC voting website) features a girl drawing a healthy environment, free from global warming and pollution, while the world outside is dirty and polluted.  Also depicted in Lin’s painting is a lamp depicting solar energy.  Lin had been aiming for top 50 in North America’s regional office, but ended becoming a runner-up (top 10).

Both Yang and Lin are students of Yumei’s Center of Artistic Inspiration, which requires its students to take part in the competition.  When asked about where her inspiration came from, Yang said, “My inspiration came from my backyard because I grow plants and I’ve been in many assemblies where they talk about how to save energy.”  Lin said, “I’ve been drawing ever since first grade.  I’ve entered this competition ever since fourth grade, and was used to entering the competition.”  Yang has been currently working on colored pencils and oil paintings and hasn’t decided on her future contests yet.  Lin has been recently focusing on oil and landscape paintings.  Unfortunately, Yang and Lin will not be able to participate in ICPC next year, as there is an age restriction (9 – 14, inclusive).  Make sure to vote for Yang and Lin’s paintings as voting ends on Oct. 15!

Vote online here: http://web.unep.org/childrens-painting-competition