This year DuKane County’s Art Conference was filled with creations as East’s very own and fellow peers from St. Charles North, Batavia, Geneva, Glenbard North, Lake Park, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South gathered to present and honor each other’s hard work with well-deserved accolades and rounds of applause. Students who demonstrated proficiency and dedication to their art were allowed to display their work for everyone to see until Nov. 15, 2023, which had a packed final showing followed by the award ceremony.
The Dukane Art Conference separates students’ pieces into 10 categories: Drawings, Paintings, Ceramics/Glass, Mixed Media/Printing, Sculpture/Jewelry, Photography, Digital Illustrations, Time Arts and Graphic Designs. Each category would have its honorable mentions, a bronze medal, a silver medal and a gold medal. St. Charles East High School offered a cast of creators to compete, with sophomores Avery Andelman and Brynn Sickel, juniors Yzabelle De Luna, Nicole Gyland, Alec Renz, Paige Jankowski and Sage Hanson and seniors Maddie Bach, Lucas Konopacki and Caroline Shortall.
In the category of Sculpture/Jewelry, both Alec Renz and Paige Jankowski received honorable mentions for Alec Renz’s intricate fantasy piece titled “Dragon’s Cradle” and Paige Jankowski’s surreal take on fast food titled “Hand-Burger.” Yzabelle De Luna took third place for her haunting and powerful piece titled “Unearthed.” For the category of Digital Illustration, Yzabelle De Luna’s poetic storyboard “Log 3/15/22” earned an honorable mention while Maddie Bach got a first-place finish in the Paintings category for her introspective work titled “False Perception.”
Yzabelle De Luna, the creator of “Log 3/15/22” and “Unearthed” gave her valuable insight on how the DuKane Art Show has impacted her. De Luna stated, “I’ve had my work shown in the DuKane Art Show for three years now, and each year it’s the same exhilarating feeling of having your work recognized. A lot of the time, young artists have piles and piles of work that the world will never see…for me, there’s always been that itching urge to have someone look at my work and for it to mean something to people.” She further added, “The Dukane Art Show has always given me that platform to have my work be recognized in front of such a large audience time and time again…It’s an experience I’d encourage more people to participate in.” She concluded by elaborating “It’s such a different feeling to look at your art from a different perspective that allows you to have a fresh perspective on it and feel proud of yourself for what you’ve done!”
Perspectives shared demonstrate the main-stay art shows inspire to encourage the next generation to strive for excellence and to invite competition to better themselves. Many viewers were surprised and inspired by the level of talent displayed. Based on the ecstatic reactions of the audience and enthusiastic accounts of experiences from artists, the event has been named a great success.
