Student Art Contest winner overcomes fears through art

The winner of the fifth annual student art contest, Phoebe Reed, has spent the past academic year diving into her fears and illustrating them on canvas.

The annual contest is held by the Homewood Public Library and draws in hundreds of applicants from Homewood and across the county. This year’s Best in Show winner was Reed, who is now a rising senior at Homewood High School.

First-place winners

► Kindergarten through second grade: Anne Violet Tucker, kindergarten at Shades Cahaba Elementary: “Parrots in the Jungle”

► Third through fifth grade: Alyanna Cate Baylon, fourth grade at Hall-Kent Elementary: “Under the Starry Night”

► Sixth through eighth grade: Evelyn Frohsin, eighth grade at Indian Springs School: “VP Kennedy”

► Ninth through 12th grade: Phoebe Reed, 11th grade at Homewood High School: “Fearing Future Reflection”

View all of the submissions online at homewoodlibrarypix.org/kids/5th-annual-student-art-contest-virtual-2021.

Her piece, titled “Fearing Future Reflection,” was part of a series she did in her advanced art class in school.

“I decided I was going to deep dive into fears and the complexity of fears, and how it’s shown figuratively and literally,” she said.

Reed has anxiety, so she has a handful of fears, she said. Among these are terminal illness, death, the ocean and centipedes. In “Fearing Future Reflection,” she explores the fear of growing old, which she said is a fear she sees in the adults around her.

“Every time you look in the mirror, it’s mocking you back that it’s going to come. It’s inevitable,” she said. “So every time you look in the mirror, you see a new wrinkle. You see a new blemish as you age older and older. It’s mocking you because it’s going to come whether you like it or not.”

Another piece on which she worked in school was for the fear of the unknown. It shows someone sitting down looking at their hands in their lap, and another hand in the frame is reaching toward them.

“That’s fear of the unknown: being diagnosed with a terminal illness because you don’t know where that’s going to go or what the future will look like for you.”

The series has helped Reed grow as an individual, she said.

“It made me realize that so many other people fear these things,” she said. “I’m growing with the paintings as I’m making them. I was also fearing personal fears as I created it, and as I created it and learned more about it, it helped me overcome them. I guess it’s a personal growing experience and finding myself through these different paintings that I’m making.”

Reed said it was difficult to select a piece to enter into the art contest. This year, the library received the highest number of submissions to date, with almost 200 entries.

“We’ve watched this event grow each year, and honestly, we had no idea how successful moving the contest online would be,” said Judith Wright, teen librarian and assistant director at the library. “This is a testament to the impact art has on children and teens. These students took the uncertainty and stress from the last year and challenged it into creating art.”

For those who want to get into art, Reed said they shouldn’t focus on comparing themselves to other people.

“Create what you’re feeling and curious about,” she said. “That will inspire you more to make your own, unique creations.”