The Manitou Art Center, a local gallery and studio, holds an annual high school art show. This year, being the 17th showing, five of Manitou’s juniors and seniors, along with other district artists, have entries being showcased in the exhibit. Currently, the applications are closed, but the gallery is still open till May 14.

This time around, junior Sydney White won a featured award for “Sign of the Times”. This award is a grant for how teenagers perceive the world on what’s affecting their lives and the world around them. Through White’s interpretation, she represented the idea of “Make Art, Not War.” Her painting was of a black and white rifle, to show violence, with the addition of colorful flowers shooting out of the barrel, to show peace.

“They really liked my piece for sign of the times because of how I can connect the world because of what happened in Paris and then what happened so close to home in Colorado Springs,” she said. Her first draught of inspiration came from a T-shirt she was wearing, of which had a similar design on it. After gathering some more ideas, she started to draw the flowers, which were based off of artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s poppies. Her goal for this piece was to represent “How beautiful things can be and how black and white our world is starting to become.” As the original project came to be, she coined it with the title “Peace”.

To check out previous showings, follow the MAC’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ManitouArtCtr/.