U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) recently congratulated 19 talented high school artists from Missouri’s 1st congressional district who competed in the 17th annual Congressional Art Competition in the district. This year’s 1st place winner, who was honored at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art, is Santia Maderios, a sophomore at McCluer High School.
Her winning entry, entitled “Bound,” is a mixed media work in pencil, marker and acrylic. Her colorful and thought-provoking work will be on display at the U.S. Capitol complex. She will travel to Washington, D.C., courtesy of Southwest Airlines, to unveil her winning entry.
“This piece displays a young woman being forced to do her hair,” she said. “Three ghost-like hands tug on her hair, forcing her to do things in order to fit society’s beauty standards. She is visibly not willing to do this.”
It’s not likely to cause the same stir as Clay’s choice last year, “An Artistic Discovery,” an acrylic painting by David Pulphus, then a recent Cardinal Ritter College Prep graduate. This intense visual response to the Ferguson unrest and resulting police response was described by Clay as “the most creative expression” he’d seen in the 16 years he had hosted the contest in the district as of last year, which is now in its 33rd year nationally .
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., whose office is next to Clay’s in the capitol, did not share Clay’s appreciation of the piece. Offended by Pulphus’ depiction of police officers with boar heads, Hunter took the piece down from the Capitol wall where it was displayed. Stephen Ayers, the architect of the Capitol, later ordered it permanently removed from view following a barrage of right-wing attacks on the painting and Clay.
Clay has been fighting – and, thus far, losing – a court battle to return the painting to public view and to uphold the artist’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech.
This year, the other winners are Hannah O’Brien of Metro High School, who took second place with a charcoal portrait of a young woman titled “A Study in Values,” and Grace Ray of Lutheran South High School, who placed third with an ink drawing titled “Metamorphosis.”
“We are celebrating our seventeenth year of recognizing outstanding young artistic talent,” Clay said, when recognizing the young artists at SLU. “As you can see from the artwork on display here, the level of talent is truly impressive.”
Clay made reference to the ongoing battle over the right to display Pulphus’ protest painting.
“Young Americans have a right to express themselves without censorship,” Clay said. “Your art is true to you. Your voices and ideas should be respected, welcomed and protected … at the U.S. Capitol, and everywhere else.”
