Two Pioneer Valley High School students, Javier Hernandez and Hunter McCormick, recently participated in Congressman Salud Carbajal’s 2021 Congressional Art Competition (CA-24). Both students’ submissions, Hernandez’s Let’s Get Over This Together (pictured) and McCormick’s A Far Away Place, were chosen to be showcased in the competition’s virtual gallery, while Hernandez was announced as the second runner-up in the contest.
“I began my painting with the purpose of representing agriculture and the essence of the country and region I live in. While working on the painting, something unexpected struck everyone in what we now know as COVID-19,” Hernandez said in a press release from Pioneer Valley High School. “I modified my painting to show what our country and the whole world was going through.”
Hernandez explained that the subject of the painting, an image of a girl coming out of water, symbolizes the U.S. as a nation moving forward, coming out of the pandemic.
“It comes from the message I want to share with everyone about overcoming ourselves and overcoming all the obstacles that come our way,” Hernandez said.
Check out Let’s Get Over This Together, A Far Away Place, and other featured artworks in the 2021 Congressional Art Competition (CA-24) online for free at ca24artcompetition.com.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 3, 2021.