NEWESD 101 Art Gallery by Mary Kempel

Welcome to the NEWESD Art Gallery

mkempel1 — 2025-08-08 22:16:46 UTC

The NEWESD 101 Art Gallery consists of pieces selected by the NEWESD 101 staff, superintendent and Board of Directors. These pieces are displayed throughout the Regal Administration Building and the Talbott Event Center.

Visit to the Gallery and share your comments with the deserving students.

Timeless Connection (2025)

mkempel1 — 2025-08-08 22:24:20 UTC

Student: Abi Samuelson

District: Central Valley

School: Central Valley

Medium: Charcoal and Watercolor

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: This piece shows the relationship between my grandparents and is based on a reference photo of their hands. The colorful watercolor background represents all the amazing experiences they have shared over the years. I hoped to convey that getting older is a beautiful thing and nothing to be afraid of. I chose to work with graphite and watercolor because they are two contrasting mediums.

Two Crows Sitting in a Tree, G-R-O-W-i-n-g (2025)

mkempel1 — 2025-08-08 22:25:45 UTC

Student: Annabella Everano

District: Central Valley

School: Central Valley

Medium: Acrylic Pain

Awards: Staff

Artist Statement: My SI is about my second-hand addiction. Watching my friends and family deal with addiction to alcohol and other drug substances has made me observant of how destructive it is. Especially when you're a child, second-hand addiction feels like you have no control. I want to speak up for people who aren’t addicts but deal with addicts. I used their stories in my pieces to show how life changed them.

Eleventh Hour (2025)

mkempel1 — 2025-08-08 22:26:26 UTC

Student: Mia Ressa

District: Spokane

School: Lewis and Clark

Medium: Colored Pencil

Awards: Board Choice

Artist Statement: I made this piece to show the disregard of nature by humans. The house fades into the tree line to represent our home of nature as a physical form, now consumed by fire. We are facing the beauty of nature, but disregarding its value. The two sides show the duality of good and evil, dressed in black and white. A flame is shown in the hands of humans, yet they do not try to stop the fire.

Nature's Hand (2024)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:08:44 UTC

Student: Mia Ressa

District: Spokane

School: Lewis and Clark

Medium: Acrylic Paint

Award: Superintendent, Board

Artist Statement: In this piece I wanted to express the relationship between humans and the environment. The hand reaching out of the bushes symbolizes what nature provides for humans with and the match symbolizes how we abuse that relationship. I wanted to have greenery surrounding the figure to show how nature is all around and that eventually the flame will catch on and spread.

Massacre at School (2024)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:16:22 UTC

Student: Katie Conn

District: Mead

School: Mt. Spokane

Medium: Charcoal

Award: Staff

Artist Statement: My work of art is a way to bring awareness to the reality of the fear each students face everyday. I hope to encourage people to think deeply about how many massacre students and our peers have experienced. My goal as an artist is to start a conversation about what a massacre like this does to the world and school system.

Beauty After the Pain (2023)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:20:49 UTC

Student: Dianna Demko

District: East Valley

School: East Valley

Medium: Photography Edited in Light Room

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: This picture represents the struggles we have in life. Behind every beautiful flower there are tears that we try to hide. The pain that causes the tears is also the pain that helps us grow into beautiful roses. Against all of the struggles we have had for the past 4 years, graduation is right around the corner. The rose represent how much my class has had to go through in the last 4 years of high school. From being Freshmen with a ruined year, to finally having a normal year only to realize we had become Seniors. Through all the tears and struggles we have had to face, finally we are blooming into beautiful roses.

Friends Forever (2023)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:23:35 UTC

Student: Charlotte Pedersen

District: Mead

School: Mt. Spokane

Medium: Oil Paint

Award: Board

Artist Statement: Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, very few things remained intact and constant in our lives. One of the things that did remain constant were the little companions that helped to color our quarantined lives. I created this painting to show that even when we are struggling and scared, our pets are there to draw strength and comfort from.

The Beauty of Birds and Light (2023)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:26:46 UTC

Student: Annaka Hansen

District: West Valley

School: West Valley

Medium: Acrylic Paint

Award: Staff

Artist Statement: I work with many different mediums but acrylic paint is my favorite. I've always been inspired by art from the baroque and rococo art movements with the dramatic lighting, the emphasis on nature and the whimsical feeling that it has, so I love to incorporate those elements into my own art. In my painting "The Beauty of Birds and Light," I leaned heavily into those elements. This painting was a challenge in so many ways. I don't often paint at such a large scale, and I've never painted a person at such a large scale. Even through 35 hours of work, I persevered and I'm so happy with the results. I hope you appreciate this painting as much as I do.

Girl In Lupine Field (2022)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:32:39 UTC

Student: Annaka Hansen

District: West Valley

School: West Valley

Medium: Acrylic paint

Award: Staff

Artist Statement: When I started this painting, I wanted to create something peaceful and beautiful, and I think the painting captures that well. However there were some bumps along the way. Painting endless dress details felt tedious at times and my color theory knowledge isn't the best. But I pushed through and ended up with one of my favorite paintings!

Beauty Galore (2022)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:33:06 UTC

Student: Thea Page

District: Central Valley

School: Mica Peak

Medium: Oil Painting

Award: Board

Artist Statement: Growing up half Filipina in the Philippines, my cousins had a darker complexion than me and would degrade their skin tones. I believe that beauty doesn't derive from the color of our skin and I wanted to show that in this painting.

Unseen (2022)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:33:26 UTC

Student: Grace Smith

District: Central Valley

School: Central Valley

Medium: Mixed media

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: This piece depicts a a boy whose parents ignore his true identity and focus on his younger self.

Long Awaited Hours (2021)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:34:01 UTC

Student: Charlotte Pedersen

District: Mead

School: Mt. Spokane

Medium: Oil

Award: Staff

Artist Statement: I was asked to do this painting by missionaries in my church. I spent probably 30 hours creating this painting. I really wanted to embody the hope and peace of the future that is so absent in our lives today.

Unmasking the Masked (2021)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:34:31 UTC

Student: Karyss Pfeffer

District: Kettle Falls

School: Kettle Falls

Medium: Mixed Media

Award: Board

Artist Statement:

Unmasking The masked

By: Karyss Pfeffer

I wear my mask like I've been told

I will obey the rule

But I didn't know it also meant

No friends, no sports, no school

Saving lives from COVID

Is why I wear my mask

But surviving isolation

Is just as big a task

Depression, anger, hatred, fear

Can cause a black cloud of commotion

I turn it on another

When unmasking my emotions

Little Warrior (2021)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:34:53 UTC

Student: Jozaiya Joseph-Lamar

District: Wellpinit

School: Wellpinit

Medium: Photography

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: The purpose of this photograph is to show how today's generation struggles finding a balance between what is modern and what is a part of its culture. This is what indigenous looks like today: You're trying to find a balance between your culture and the dominant culture of our generation.

Got Milk? (2020)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:35:24 UTC

Student: Jessica Paige Keen

District: Mead

School: Mt. Spokane

Medium: Oil on canvas

Award: Board

Artist Statement: These are my neighbor's cows that I drive by every day. I like to stop and say hi to them every once in a while. They get excited when they see me.

We need to do better (2020)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:35:43 UTC

Student: Niko Shawn Renee Looper

District: Central Valley

School: Central Valley

Medium: Watercolor ink

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: Each hand represents a different aspect of society and my lived experience as a high school student. These hands are reaching for hope.

Silence by the Ignorant (2020)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:36:16 UTC

Student: Emma Loree Kaluzny

District: Kettle Falls

School: Kettle Falls

Medium: Acrylic

Award: Staff

Artist Statement: My passion for art and standing up for yourself is what lead me to paint this piece. The colors represent how vibrant one person can be and that constrained by the paper cannot show the full meaning.

Young Boy in Peru (2019)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:36:47 UTC

Student: Isabella Nicole Husein

District: Spokane

School: Ferris

Medium: Photograph

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: This young boy represents the joy that can be found within even the most difficult of circumstances. It displays the growth, innocence, and youthfulness found around the world, in the most humble and beautiful of cultures.

Hiding in the Garden (2019)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:37:19 UTC

Student: Mackenzie Elaine Weiland

District: Mead

School: Mt. Spokane

Medium: Colored Pencil

Award: Staff

Artist Statement: This piece was inspired by all the times my dad took us on adventures, when we'd find all sorts of interesting bones, sticks, and other trinkets in the woods. I love the magical realism of the scene, which is meant to reflect the whimsical world a child creates when playing outside.

Kindred Tones (2018)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:37:44 UTC

Student: Kyle Duncan

District: Cheney

School: Cheney

Medium: Digital Photography

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: I love taking photographs, i love it because its telling a story but without words!

Free Fall (2018)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:38:02 UTC

Student: Chloe Poshusta

District: Central Valley

School: Central Valley

Medium: Chalk Pastel

Award: Staff

Artist Statement: The piece is inspired by themes of falling in to depression and desperately reaching out for help.

Daniel (2017)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:38:28 UTC

Student: Maggie Booth

District: Cheney

School: Cheney

Medium: Digital Photography

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: Over this past summer, I had the amazing privilege of teaching elementary school children English in Tanzania, Africa. Daniel, the boy in the photograph, ended up teaching me more than I taught him.

Emy Grace (2017)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:38:52 UTC

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:48:24 UTC

Student: Erin Frederick

District: East Valley

School: East Valley

Medium: Pastel

Award: Superintendent

Artist Statement: I wanted to experience a new medium. I liked pastel. I went down to a florist shop, saw their display of orchids and took a few pictures. I loved the color and placement of the one I chose.

Moderation (2006)

mkempel1 — 2025-10-23 21:48:40 UTC

Music at Sunrise (2026)

mkempel1 — 2026-03-31 22:43:33 UTC

Student: Gabriella Rigsby

District: Mead

School: Mt. Spokane High School

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Award: Board

Inspiration: One of my close friends stepped out into the light to play her old instrument she hadn’t touched in a long time. Awkward at first before figuring it out, the softness of the clouds with the intensity of the sun behind her display the power of music. It seems as if the sun is breaking through the clouds. The vibrations of the violin create peace around her as she relaxes into the steady rhythm.

Memoir of a Grandfather (2026)

mkempel1 — 2026-03-31 22:45:06 UTC

Student: Pixie Boucher

District: Mead

School: Mt. Spokane High School

Medium: Acrylic on Wood Panel

Award: Superintendent

Inspiration: The painting is a memoir of my Uncle’s old truck given to him by his grandfather. The truck is surrounded by the fields and woods of my uncle’s farm where I work in the summer. The old vehicle symbolizes the passing of my uncle’s grandfather.