Aliso Niguel artists worked earlier this month to compete in the annual Municipal Water District of Orange County Water Awareness Poster Contest (MWDOC), and this year’s theme was “Water Connects Us All.”
Although the contest is assigned to students in Aliso Niguel art classes with Ms. Hartman, any artist K-12 can choose to participate.
MWDOC has hosted this event for over 30 years, making it an important tradition to support water conservation. Every spring, they receive over a thousand posters advocating for water conservation, but can only choose 40 winners to receive a prize. Top winners within the 40 from each age category receive an ipad, but everyone is invited to spend a day with MWDOC to learn more about water conservation.
These award winning posters are often used by MWDOC to publicize and raise awareness for their cause.
The rules of the contest are broad, only requiring students to submit purely original work on specific dimensions of paper. Otherwise, anything pertaining to the theme is permitted, giving free reign to all competitors.
Ms. Hartman encourages students to push their creative boundaries as well, allowing them to use any mediums that they can be successful in and encouraging students to take the prompt at a new perspective. For example, some students focus more on water pollution in their project, adding a new layer to the cause of preserving water; that it doesn’t just take using less of it, but also protecting the purity of the water that exists.
Ms. Hartman has her own take too, saying part of the value of making these posters is to also highlight that, “We are very fortunate to be able to drink our water and use our water straight out of the tap … If you literally drive south and cross into the border of our neighboring country, Mexico, you can’t use water straight out of the tap. You don’t order ice in your drink because that could be problematic, or if you’re visiting … you have to try and ingest as little water as possible when you’re brushing your teeth, so [these are all things] we take for granted, right? [And] that’s sort of the point we are trying to make.”
To help guide students Ms. Hartman provided a lesson including examples of posters, infographics and strategies to emphasize their message, opening the artists to new possibilities for their project.
Abby Pomery (11), an artist in AP Drawing who recently completed her poster for the contest, described her piece, “I decided to do an ethereal mix between a mermaid and a human where they are holding hands…so my point in this mermaid concept was to [show the connection of] our ocean wildlife to our land wildlife, and to remind us that it is beyond species … how important water conservation is.”
Pomery expressed her gratitude that she was able to channel her skills towards a larger cause for her community while also expanding her skills by exploring new subjects that deviate from her normal AP projects.
Since AP art classes have students often make several projects under one theme for their portfolio, having occasional art contests to vary things has proved to be a beneficial break for students.
Because this is Ms. Hartman’s first year teaching at Aliso Niguel, she was unable to fit more contests as she was adjusting to the new schedule and pacing of the school; however, she has clearly stated that she will be bringing in more contests for students to do next year, recognizing their value for artists of every level.
