2021 Logan County Fair

The 4-H general projects Visual and Non-visual Arts show creativity and dedication

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[August 09, 2021]   The Visual Arts division at the Logan County Fair provides children and adults from around Logan County a chance to share their talents and creativity.

On Monday morning, 4-H Non-original Visual Arts and 4-H Visual Arts and general 4-H projects judging took place with hundreds of outstanding entries for judges to consider. The entries are made from various media, which may be either original or non-original.

To create their artwork, the young artists may use media such as paper, clay, fiber, wood, chalk/carbon/pigment, glass/plastic, metal and nature.

Original arts are designs created entirely by the exhibitor, while non-original arts are made from either kits, pre-printed designs, or pre-molded pieces.

The artwork is judged for its craftsmanship, originality, and creativity, though these areas are only a small portion of the total score. The 4-H members must also have a basic knowledge of various art concepts and be able to present judges with a detailed explanation of their projects.

Judges say they consider how well 4-H members explain their project goals, their reasons for choosing the project, their decisions, and their results, as well as providing a self-evaluation of what they could have done differently.

As Allie Hand judges aerospace, tractor, welding or small engine projects, after the kids explain their projects, she likes to ask them the important things they learned from the project and what was the most fun about doing it.

Colleen Roate judges visual arts and asks kids how they came up with the idea, whether they had a good time and what they would do differently if they did the project again.

Dennis Campbell judges the environmental science section and tells kids to keep their interests no matter what. In talking to one child about his bug project, he asked where the child found the bugs and gave him more tips on finding bugs.
 


In judging photography, Jacob Tyler looks at the composition of the photo to see how pleasing and captivating it is and what makes it good. He wants to see how much the kids know about the camera to progress.

To make kids feel more at ease and relate to them on a personal level, judges also ask the kids about themselves.

Both during and after the judging, judges give feedback telling participants where they did well, as well as how and where they could show improvement. The smallest details can be significant.

Some 4-H members did projects using various media and entered both visual and non-visual projects, while others focused on one project.
Though some participants have been entering projects for many years, several were entering projects for the first time.

First time participant Colby Bowman did a project called junk drawer robotics. He made a marshmallow catapult, which he said was the first thing in the book he had, and was fun to make and use.

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Henry Farmer, another first-time participant, did projects on tractor safety dos and don’ts and visual arts. In the visual arts project, Farmer painted bolts, screws, nails and a wrench to make them all look like a tree. His grandma gave him the idea and he loves painting.

In his first year of 4-H, Klaytyn Snow entered a photograph and poultry science project. Snow’s photo was of a turtle in North Carolina. He got very close up to take the photo, which he said was cool. For poultry science, Snow chose to do a project on chickens because the family raises chickens, and it is easy to learn about them. Since chickens do not have teeth, he wanted to learn how they eat.

Scotty White grew sunflowers for his project because he likes them. Though he is just nine years old, White has been growing sunflowers for about five years and has won first place before. White plans to keep competing until he is too old for 4-H.

Myah Bowman, who has participated for a few years, did a scrapbooking project on a recent trip to Florida. Bowman loved creating memories of her trip to Florida. Over the weekend, Bowman had made a Swedish Tea Ring that a leader told her was good for a 4-H cooking project.

Entering for the sixth year, Palmer Sheets did a scrapbooking project on a trip to Florida her family took earlier this year. Sheets said she is very creative and loves putting the photos together.

Hollis Sheets, a fifth-year participant, did his project on tractor safety. In the project done on posterboard, Sheets talked about the Power-Take-Off (PTO.) He showed what goes from the tractor to the implement and how the PTO keeps people safe. Sheets likes farming, so he said that made him interested in the topic.

Seventeen-year-old Mackenzie McIntosh has been in 4-H for seven years and did wood painting and canvas painting this year. Mcintosh’s canvas painting was a landscape with a desert sunset. She likes beautiful sunsets and decided to recreate a photo of one in her painting. In the wood painting, Mcintosh was inspired by a show called Teen Wolf. Mcintosh used her favorite color, blue, in the painting and mixed the blue to give the painting different dimensions.

Though not yet in 4-H, eight-year-old Elaina Martin entered several projects in the general visual arts section, including drawing three separate horses with a pencil, marker and crayon. She also did an acrylic painting with depth of flowers, sky and grass and sewed a Barbie dress. Martin hopes to enter 4-H projects showcasing her talents in years to come.

As always, the visual and non-visual arts and general 4-H projects section showcased the talents of many youths from around Logan County.

Winning entries will be displayed in the Expo Building throughout the week of the fair.


[Angela Reiners]

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