Riverhead School District

Riverhead High School student wins art award

COURTESY PHOTO |Maria Valdivia with her graphics art project "Human Corruption" will receive a Senior Art Award at the Parrish Art Museum's School Art Festival on Saturday.
Maria Valdivia will receive a Senior Art Award at the Parrish Art Museum’s School Art Festival on Saturday.

Riverhead High School senior Maria Valdivia is being honored for combining art with technology.

Ms. Valdivia’s computer graphics project, entitled “Human Corruption,” is being awarded during the Parrish Art Museum’s High School Student Art Celebration and reception Saturday afternoon in Southampton.

For more than 60 years the Parrish has reserved a spot in its annual museum exhibit for student artwork.  The showcase includes submissions from public and private schools in the townships of Riverhead, Southampton, East Hampton, and Southold, as well as high schools in Brookhaven Town.

Ms. Valdivia created her award-winning art project on a Wacom drawing tablet — one of the new devices the district purchased through a Perkins Technology Grant.

In addition to being a budding artist, she also excels academically. She carries a 4.0 grade point average and is expected to graduate near the top of her class.  She has taken advance studio art as well as the computer graphics course where the piece was designed.

“Maria has an innate talent, and she works exceptionally hard,” Riverhead High School computer graphics teacher Caitlin Jablow said in a statement. “She is extremely creative and thinks way outside of the box. I am very proud of her achievement.”

Ms. Valdivia plans to continue her studies in art by combining art with an engineering degree. She hopes eventually to become an animator and work on movies like those produced by Pixar.

The reception is Saturday at Parrish Art Museum from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Ms. Valdivia’s piece, along with other students’ artwork will be one displace at the museum through March 2.

Human Corruption