“Dizzy,” photograph by Carolyn Adams

The Maine Arts Commission has announced that the winners of the 2019 Congressional Art Competition are Carolyn Adams of Lewiston High School and Julia Lee of Falmouth High School.

The Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual art competition every year to recognize and encourage artistic talent in each congressional district. Maine’s winners, representing the state’s two congressional districts, were chosen by a panel of jurors appointed by the Maine Arts Commission.

The judges unanimously chose Carolyn Adams’ photograph “Dizzy,” which captures a dancer inside an old New England building, as the winner from Maine’s Second District.

“Dizzy takes the viewer out of the present, into a world of illusion,” said juror Cynthia Orcutt. “The heaviness of the old masonry structure is offset by multiple delicate, rounded windows and the lightness of a spinning young dancer’s dress, hair, and arms moving in front of them. The selection is a poetic and elegant expression of creativity occurring in one of in Maine’s Second District’s oldest cities.”

Jurors selected Julia Lee’s drawing “Facet” as the winner from Maine’s First District.

“Julia’s piece is a masterful work of art on many levels,” said juror Beth Van Mierlo. “The reflection of light in the eye, the reflective image mirrored back on the surface of the table, and the soft technique used to render the blurred jar of water made this piece a winner.”

Both first place students will have their artwork on display at the U.S. Capitol for one year and will be offered respective scholarships to attend Maine College of Art in Portland. All recognized artwork will be on exhibit at the Maine State House in Augusta during the spring of 2019.

Other student honorees from the 2^ndDistrict were Asha Shueyb of Lewiston High School (First Runner Up), Joey Sprague of Oxford Hills High School (Second Runner Up), and Isaac Wardwell of George Stevens Academy, Jihwan Hwang Li of Hebron Academy, and Culiandra Nero of Oxford Hills High School (Honorable Mentions).

Since the competition began in 1982, more than 650,000 high school students have participated, according to the U.S. House of Representatives website. For more information, visit www.MaineArts.com.