Souhegan Sophomore Earns National Art Award for "Debased Grace"

A National Gold Key Winner in Photography, Skye St. James has earned The Scholastic Art & Writing Alliance’s prestigious national art award.

One of only four to receive the award in the state, Skye will be heading to a Carnegie Hall ceremony on May 31st in New York City, where her work will be showcased before moving to reputable galleries throughout the city.

“Skye's work has been recognized as one of the most outstanding artworks by teens in the nation,” said Souhegan art teacher, Liz Gosselin. 

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have an impressive legacy dating back to 1923 and a noteworthy roster of past winners including Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford and Joyce Carol Oates, according to Scholastic. The Alliance is the longest running, largest and most prestigious competition for students grade 7-12. It is also the largest source of scholarships in the country for creative young artists and writers, according to Scholastic.

Though she is unhappy with the title (“It’s clichéd,”) Skye’s winning photograph, Debased Grace, is a meditation on contrasts.

“In most of my photos, I like them to have contrasts,” Skye said. “I wanted this image to have the dirty background of the sidewalk to contrast with the image of a very put-together, glamorous woman on the cover of a glossy magazine. Someone spent a lot of time creating the image of that woman. Then someone just threw it way, like trash, like they didn’t care. It was completely soiled. When I saw that magazine image on the ground, the contrast struck me.”

Skye’s artistic process itself expresses her beliefs about art.

“I try not to give [my art] a meaning that’s obvious. I’d rather have the person seeing the art find their own meaning.”

Indeed, Skye didn’t set out to document portrayals of women, or make a statement about how women are treated as commodities in a throw-away culture.

“How women are portrayed might be one of the more obvious themes that someone might take from the image, but art doesn’t need a specific message to be valid or good. It can be just as important as a piece of art that has some sort of message to it. Even if art doesn’t have a meaning, if it makes you feel something, then the artist has accomplished something.”