by Erin Farquharson and Taylor Polomarenko

Colin Deane, Emily Barry, and Brenton Sullivan reflect on their contest pieces in this video.

Annually, art students at Hudson High School enter their best pieces of work into the Boston Globe Scholastic Art and Writing Contest. Bruce Hedison’s AP Graphic Design class of 14 students all entered pieces this year. Students created a digital portfolio of all the work they have done. “I look at all the portfolios and pull out the ones I feel are the best work,” said Hedison. “At this point the art teachers and I will look at all of them and select 15 to 20.”

Most of the students in the class only submitted one piece of artwork. There were four students in the AP Graphic Design class who had more than one piece of artwork selected for the contest.

For some students the pieces they enter are the ones that they work on all year while other students finish a project within a few class periods. The computer programs, thought process and completion of the projects are different for all students. “I put all of the pictures up that I want, edit them, and make my final touches,” says Brenton Sullivan.

Each project takes several drafts to complete. Most times students work on their pieces until they are happy with the results. The teachers usually submit the pieces before winter break, so all of the work needs to be done by then.

After completion, students always appreciate feedback. All feedback is intended to give students the motivation knowing their pieces will be submitted to represent their school and receive recognition for their artwork. “ I got a lot of feedback before entering the contest. Mostly from Mr. Hedison, but also other students,” says Colin Deane.

Though all of the students in the AP Graphic Design class have entered the contest before, they feel confident about winning this year. “I have been selected before for one of my houses. I received a gold key,” says Colin Deane, but he has been working on a new house all year hoping again to get a key.

“The honor to win makes me feel like my hard work pays off,” says senior Emily Barry. And with no limit as to how many pieces each student can enter, the odds are in their favor.

With the end of the semester, the students stepped away from their computers still thinking about the Scholastics Awards. Having entered their pieces about a month in advance, they were ready to find out the results.

“Hopefully we get some gold keys in Scholastics this time,” says Brenton Sullivan.

After the results were released on January 31 , Hedison was very happy. “We have a very talented student body here at Hudson High School,” he said.