Gloucester Alumni

By Kristen Grieco
Staff writer, Gloucester Daily Times

It's the first time a student from Gloucester has ever done it — and 16-year-old Courtland Kelly did it with one arm in a sling.

The Gloucester High School junior has won a prestigious art award, handed to only five students in the state, for her work on a terra cotta vessel painted with an intricate design of black-and-white ovals. The work, called "Leaves," won the American Vision Award as part of the Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards.

Courtland's piece was one of five to win the award of 3,487 entries from 376 schools statewide, but hers was the only ceramic piece to win this year. The award marks the first time that a student from the city has won an American Vision Award.

Work on the piece began in September, when teacher Nancy Hochberg-Higgins handed Courtland an assignment to research a style of pottery that she connected with and create a piece in its style. After a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts with her mother, Courtland discovered the work of Dorothy Torivio, who sculpted pottery in the Acoma tribe tradition.

With her left arm pinned to her side after shoulder surgery from a diving injury, Courtland — a righty — began to hand-sculpt the vessel from terra cotta, or red clay — the same material the New Mexican Acoma tribe uses.

After treating the pot with an underglaze and firing it in the kiln to turn it from red to white, Courtland began to painstakingly paint the oval pattern onto the pot.

"I wanted to do a repeating pattern," Courtland said. "My mom likes leaf patterns, so I came up with ovals that were kind of leafish."

That type of insight is what sets Courtland — who favors clay over sketching or painting — apart from many young artists, said Hochberg-Higgins. While her piece is in the Acoma style, the idea is all her own.

"The technical expertise for someone who is age 16 is mind-boggling," Hochberg-Higgins said. "But it's not a photographic replica. She put her own personal style on it, twisted it to be her own, and that's impressive."

The award has proven to be motivation to Courtland, who said that when she saw the pieces hers was up against, she was astounded she won.

"It really motivates me, because if you ask any of my friends, I spend so much time in this studio," Courtland said. "It's really nice to see that all this crazy obsessiveness pays off."

Courtland entered Hochberg-Higgins' first Clay Works class when she was a sophomore, and has since rolled through every available three-dimensional clay class and moved on to independent studies, which is where she worked on "Leaves." Even when Courtland first came to class, her teacher said, she had a certain ability to immediately adapt to the technical skills required for sculpting.

For Courtland, though, her work with clay is anything but technical. It's a way to escape the "crazy school stuff" that dominates most of her day.

"You get to work with your hands," she said. "It's a way to be creative. I really like making things because they can be functional. I just love coming in here and watching it grow."

Courtland also has begun to figure out the potential financial benefits of her skills. At a recent Amnesty fundraiser, she donated four clay bowls she made on a pottery wheel and raised $100.

Fairly certain that ceramics will remain in her life long into the future, Courtland has begun exploring universities with ceramics studios, though she hopes to one day be a doctor.

For now, however, Courtland has more than a year left to continue her high school work, and she has at least one specific, personal project in mind.

"I have these favorite shoes I really like, and they're starting to fall apart," she said. "I'm hoping to immortalize them."

Courtland's piece and other winning pieces are on exhibit at the Massachusetts State Transportation Building at 10 Park Plaza, Boston, through Feb. 22.

Other Gloucester Winners

The following Gloucester High School students won Boston Scholastic Art Awards:

r Miriam Brooks, honorable mention

r Marissa Doyle, portfolio gold key nominee

r Juliann Flaherty, honorable mention

r Mikhaela Frontiera, honorable mention

r Felicia Lowe, honorable mention

r Jenny Perkins, honorable mention

r Jessica Russ, silver key

r Ruslan Sowerder, honorable mention

r Josh St. Peter, honorable mention

The following O'Maley Middle School students won Boston Scholastic Art Awards:

r Micaela O'Connor, honorable mention

r Austin Titus, honorable mention