by Paul R. Spitzzeri
The range of entries in the middle school/junior high level for the City of Industry 60th Anniversary Art Contest are striking for media, size and content. Aside from winning student April Diaz of Lassalette School in La Puente, there are several other works that show an impressive diversity of expression.
For example, another Lassalette student, Brigette Castillo, who finished 7th grade in June, submitted her “The Future Cityscape” including the City’s new motto “Jobs, Enterprise, * Industrial Infrastructure” with a dramatic pallette of rich dark colors.
Her roadways, sky, and buildings include deep purple, royal blue, bright yellow, light blue, black, gray, and green to provide a strong visual contrast from one element of her work to another. Her statement on the reverse was that she “used the elements of line and movement to make people’s eyes move around the art.” Brigette also looked to show that, in the City of 2057, “people will be more creative” and “use more color and technology.” Finally, she expressed the hope that her work would show how “people have big ideas.”
Emely Antonio, another Lassalette student who just completed seventh grade. submitted a three-panel work called “The Future” in which she aimed to show “that people are going to . . . create inventions, make technology more advanced, and help industry do better.” With colored pencil, colored pens and ink she shows a “leaf pencil factory” at the left, in which these sustainable products are on a conveyor belt, packed into boxes, and then taken for transport.
The center panel shows an intriguing landscape of greenery and colorful plants, a tall water dispenser, flying cars, and futuristic buildings. At the right is a robot and a young woman who appears to be the programmer. Emely’s comments on the reverse of the work state that “in the future, I p[an to draw more art that shows the future and that inspires people.”
Brandon Torres of Sparks Middle School in La Puente submitted a work filled with tall buildings of many unusual shapes, bright colors and ranging uses, including shoe makers like Nike and Adidas, stores like Walmart and Superior Grocery, and the famed La Puente landmark, the Donut Hole! A few blimps in the sky promote the future City of Industry, while a drone at the lower right delivers a meal from In ‘N Out to a customer.
Anne Lin, who finished 7th grade at Cedarlane Academy in Hacienda Heights invested a lot of time in her conception of the future City of Industry. The city logo is front and center while futuristic vehicles in bright colors ply the roadways and an airplane and blimp fly overhead.
Anne’s buildings shows a remarkable diveristy of form and design, including one at the left that looks like a glass ball and others that have geometric forms, domed tops, thinly pointed towers, and other interesting elements. Most impressive are the design elements decorating the structures–these clearly took some time to create!
Much larger in size are the last two pieces, including a watercolor by Annie Liang, who completed seventh grade at Newton Middle School in Hacienda Heights. Annie, who matted her work with a blue frame, shows a landscape of green lawns, in the midst of which is a fountain and pond, and a City of Industry logo.
Pathways wind through the area and lining one of them are a series of trees and a sign that reads “City of Industry 2057.” Behind that are three large and tall office towers with varying shapes, designs and colors, including purples, blues, and red.
Vanessa Gutierrez, who finished eighth grade at Orange Grove Middle School in Hacienda Heights, submitted a large format drawing that shows an interest in anime, judging by the people and robots at the bottom of her “Industrial City” work. A vehicle is at the lower left and some really imaginative structures rise high above the group.
What looks like a large screen has a welcome sign and one of the structures, topped by a sharp tower and what looks a planet with a ring around it, has an advertising sign reading “New Mechanical Limbs!” To the upper right is a news board proclaiming “America and Russia sign peace treaty” and “Mars has Water,” both referring to contemporary pieces of news that look to have had solutions decades from now!
Thanks to all these junior high school students for submitting their art works and for demonstrating creativity, artistic expression and vision for the future!