Vernon Hills Artist Gets Place in Congress

Acts of Congress are passed for a variety of reasons, and for three award-winning North Shore high school artists, it means exposure for their creativity.

Vernon Hills High School’s Kayla Guo, Nicole Otake of Glenbrook North High School and Cullen Casey from Lake Forest High School were this year’s Congressional Art Competition winners from the 10^th District.

The work of the three winners, along with the work of 41 other artists, was on display Friday in the office of Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Deerfield) who personally handed out the awards and told the gathering of students, parents, teachers and friends how the contest became a law.

“This is an act of Congress,” Schneider said of the 1982 bill which created the contest and turned an unattractive tunnel into an art gallery. “Now 435 pieces of art will be seen by (members of Congress) each time we walk through the tunnel from our offices (to the Capitol).”

Guo’s “That Girl in That Picture Making That Face” will be on display in Schneider’s Washington office. Otake’s “Fusion” will hang in the tunnel between one of the Congressional office buildings and the Capitol for a year and Casey’s “Tree of Life” will adorn the walls of Schneider’s Lincolnshire office.

Watch the video of each artist describing their work to better understand the creation and the creator.

In all, students competed from Vernon Hills, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Northbrook, Deerfield, Highland Park, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Waukegan, Gurnee, Long Grove, Wheeling, Mount Prospect and Hawthorn Woods.

Additional entrants from Lake Forest and Lake Bluff were Darby Clarke, Stephanie Coats, Genna Crofts, Grace Demet, Danlin Huang, Claire Jones, Yuanxin Song and Caroline Watts. Others from Vernon Hills were Emily Brutman, Tiffany Do, Hannah Friedman, Ann Ho and Brittany Maslov.

Joining Otake in the contest from Northbrook were Anam Chhartiwala, Bailey Lecat, Rachel Mintz and Molly Orbon. Deerfield’s participant was Klaudia Grigiel while Highland Park sent Samantha Gutheim, Anna Harris and Mackenzie Paulsen.

Glenview’s contestant was Brittany Holsman while Buffalo Grove sent Gianna Lainez, Jesse Wang and Kimberly Xu. Lindsey Kim and Jenny Ma Li joined the effort from Long Grove while Mount Prospect’s Jessica Musto and Tatiana Rosales did the same.

Waukegan had a delegation of nine including Ivan Almazo, Venessa Bueno, Banesa Donoe, Banesa Gonzalez, Cyera James, Maria Pettis, Natalie Romero, Margarita Uriostegui, and Andres Vences. Others were Alyssa Karim of Gurnee, Alan Martinez of Wheeling and Henry Sise of Hawthorn Woods.