Mark Sarles
Sports Editor

“Insomnia,” a drawing by junior Svea Torgerson, depicts an eye being pulled open by hands. The use of graphite creates a shine off of the paper that makes the drawing look so real. Hands coming from all directions, evoke emotions to depict what it’s like for someone living with insomnia.

The Scholastic Art Award recognizes art and writing in the State of Minnesota. Less than 30 percent of the artwork submitted into the Minnesota contest wins a medal or achievement. The gold medal winners are then entered to win awards at the national art competition.

Renowned pop artist Andy Warhol actually won a Scholastic Art award as a teenager, according to The Scholastic Art Award website.

Numerous Students from Orono were entered into the competition and six won awards for their work. The six Orono students to win awards were Svea Torgerson, Priscilla Cole, Maddie Eppard, Bryn Iverson, Abbie McGrann, and Jack Myhre. One of the six, Torgerson, won a gold medal for her drawing. Her gold medal drawing was then entered to win in the national Scholastic Art Award competition, where Torgerson earned a silver medal award at the national competition. She is the first student from Orono to ever win a national award in the scholastic competition.

“She was given a prompt to use any human part and had to include hands that come from off the page,” art teacher Jayne Hudgins said.

Svea took that prompt and ran with it. She used an eye as the body part because she said she is most comfortable drawing that. She then delicately drew each hand grabbing at the eye.

“I struggled to use colored pencil to achieve realistic skin tone. It took me several hours on each hand and they turned out alright in the end,” Torgerson said.

Torgerson used graphite pencil and prismacolor colored pencils to create the drawing. When creating the drawing, Torgerson said she wanted to create something “freaky” and “cool to look at.”

As for the rest of her art career, Torgerson said she hopes to continue to submit artwork in contests. She has been submitting artwork since eighth grade, and hopes to continue it as a hobby after high school.

“Svea is a quiet, but very hardworking girl. She is a brilliant artist with lots of creativity,” Hudgins said.