Over ninety members of the Western Wayne Wildcat Marching Band and Color Guard performed this past Friday, Feb. 1 at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.  The group marched in the park’s afternoon parade called Disney Festival of Fantasy.  Led by band director Mrs. Elaine Ort, the group performed “Circle of Life” from the Lion King.  The students were thrilled to have the once in a life time opportunity of playing as they marched through Main Street USA.  “We are very proud of all of the accomplishments of the members of the Wildcat Marching Band,” Ort said.

Two self-portraits titled “Jet Fuel” and “Made of Dust” and a color pencil piece of actor Luke Evans won Western Wayne High School art students Melanie Roberts and Shailyn Pugh first and second place respectively at the 4^th High School Emerging Artists Showcase at The Art Factory of White Mills on Saturday, Jan. 19.

Students from local schools participated.  Western Wayne had a number of high school students submit pieces including: Maya Black, Miriam Sheehan, Melanie Roberts, Melody Gershey, Dayla Jones, Kat Moore, Rachel Butler, Shailyn Pugh, Abby Burke, and Nina Nerys.

Junior Shailyn Pugh won the second place prize of a 75 dollar gift card to Michael’s.

She felt proud of her color pencil portrait of actor Luke Evans who, among many other roles, recently played Gaston in the newest Beauty and the Beast film.  Shailyn enjoys creating portraits and other realistic pieces.  She thinks the one she did of Evans is one of her best.

“I used to be afraid of blending colors,” Shailyn explained.  “But for this piece I think the colors I needed were there in the end.”

The prize money will help Shailyn purchase water color paper and new paint.  She would like to practice more painting and explained that she loves the challenge involved in creating good quality art work.

“When I’m finished with a piece, I like to see what I created and usually I can see myself getting better,” Shailyn said.

Her classmate senior Melanie Roberts came in first at the showcase for her self-portraits, “Jet Fuel” and “Made of Dust.”

Melanie explained how she

enjoys creating symbolic self-portraits that display qualities about her.

“Jet Fuel,” created with half colored pencil and half pen and ink, has a background of half water with her head under it.

“A lot of my pictures show emotion,” Melaine said.

Daydreaming and wonderment is represented in Melanie’s other portrait in the showcase called “Made of Dust,” created with colored pencil, charcoal, and some acrylic.  She explained how there are planets and starts around her head in the picture which represent how her head is sometimes in the clouds.

Next year, Melaine wishes to start college in the spring and study art.  In the meantime, she plans to use the prize of a 100 dollar gift card to Michaels to buy more acrylic paint and pen and ink markers.

“I like to show how I feel in my art work,” Melaine explained.  “It helps me to explain things because it is hard to talk about emotions.”

Snow shoes, maple leafs, and thermometers all appear carefully placed in Western Wayne senior Sadie Nahman’s display that she created for the 2019 Pennsylvania Farm Show exhibit for maple syrup.     Sadie follows in the footsteps of her art teacher, Mr. Justin Hayden, who had made the display in the past for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Maple Producers Association.  Hayden approached Sadie with the idea thinking it could be a good way for her to use her artistic talents to help the community and for her to accomplish her senior project.  All Western Wayne seniors must complete a senior project involving work in the community.

“I thought Sadie would do a really great job researching the process and applying her knowledge to this piece,” Hayden explained.

In preparation of making the display, Sadie had to research the process of making maple syrup.

“I had no idea how it worked,” Sadie explained.  “I learned you have to heat up maple syrup and basically cook it before it can be eaten.”

Having always loved the outdoors, Sadie thought she would enjoy her work creating this piece for the farm show.  She explained that the most challenging part of the project was having to do her pencil artwork for the display on a large scale to be shown behind the entire maple exhibit area.

However, Sadie felt up for the challenge since she plans to work to achieve other lofty goals starting next year when she will study forensic science in college.  She believes that her work in her art class especially with her senior project piece will better prepare her for the future.

“You have to strategically place things,” she explained.  “So this causes you to have to look ahead and plan out what you want the picture to be before you begin it.”

Sadie’s maple piece from the farm show will also be on display at the GDS Fair and Wayne County Fair this summer.

All Western Wayne administration and staff are proud of Sadie’s accomplishments and wish her the best in the future.