For some students art is just a class they must take in order to graduate, but for others it is a way they express their emotions and show the world who they really are. Art students complete their assignments while including their own personal touches on their creations. They showcased their masterpieces at the annual Visual Arts Scholastic Event competition on Saturday, Feb. 25, and students returned home with 120 medals.

The mission of the VASE competition is to recognize students who show impeccable art skills and have them compete against other students in the district.

“Any high school student who has a teacher wanting to enter them [can enter in the competition], however that art teacher must be part of the Texas Art Education Association,” Harmon art teacher Chana Jayme said. “The work they want to enter must have been made in the past year, and it also must have been done under the supervision of the teacher.”

Students are critiqued over their art by a rubric and an interview with the judge. Contest participants go into a room one by one with a judge where they talk about what they can improve on in their art pieces.

The scoring on the rubric ranges from a one to a four, with four being the highest score students can receive. When students receive fours on their pieces, they receive medals.

“They didn’t really tell me what to fix,” freshman art student Anakaren Alvarez said. “They kind of expected me to tell them what I did wrong and what I could’ve done better for myself.”

The VASE competition is meant to be a learning experience for art students as they can determine how to improve their techniques and learn how to explain their pieces to the public.

“I like listening to criticism because it gives me a different [point of] view,” senior art student Adriana Rodriguez said. “In order to become better at what I enjoy doing, [I must] learn [from] the mistakes I’ve done.”

This competition is something many art students look forward to so they can showcase their passion.

“The VASE competition is an amazing experience and I was [most] excited to see everyone’s art laid out [in] the gym,” Rodriguez said.