HIGHER ART: BEST HIGH SCHOOL WORK AT UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

Cape Central's Jennifer Rubel sculpted a reclining female nude from alabaster, the world's softest stone. Holly Dirnberger of Oran High School painted and drew a detailed portrait of a Native American adding a third dimension with a feather. Derek Lloyd of New Madrid County Central created a 4-foot-tall assemblage from small wooden rectangles and spheres. Annette Horrell of Notre Dame Regional High School made a brightly colored bird using batik, a method of cloth dyeing that is very difficult to control.

Theirs are among the works in 23rd annual High School Art Symposium at the University Museum.

The opening reception for the show will be from 1-3 p.m. Sunday at the University Museum. Awards will be announced at 2 p.m.

Twenty-six schools from as far away as St. Louis and the Bootheel entered, with each art teacher limited to 50 entries. The symposium was open to grades 10-12.

Artists contributed work in seven categories: sculpture, photography, printmaking, ceramics, drawing, painting and fibers.

Rubel used a hammer and chisel to give her alabaster stone form, a "rake" to flake off more, a "raft" to sand it down and sandpaper to finish.

This is the first sculpture Rubel has made from alabaster. "It was the best stone available, the most pliable and the easiest to work with," she says.

Rubel also has printmaking and painting entries in the symposium.

"It tells me I'm doing well," she says of acceptance in the exhibition. "It's kind of like a morale booster."

Rubel won a Regents Scholarship to attend Southeast next fall and plans to study art. She is the daughter of Karen and Jack Rubel.

Juror Judith Cureton, a Southeast graduate who is retired from teaching at Kelly High School in Benton, Mo., chose 116 pieces for inclusion in the exhibit from more than 1,000 entries.

"It's a real honor for a student to have a work of art in this show," says Dr. Edwin L. Smith, a Southeast art education professor who has been organizing the symposium for 23 years.

"This is the best show yet," says Smith. "The quality continues to improve and the presentation continues to improve."

Presentation is an important part of exhibiting art that teachers need to pay attention to, Smith says.

"It needs to be presented in a way that enhances the art."

Viewers of the exhibition might see some works that needed a bit more matting around the painting, for instance, yet the quality of work was high enough to get it into the show.

Smith pointed to a gray drawing set off smartly by gray matting and black frame. "It can make or break a piece," Smith says.

Southeast uses the annual symposium as a recruitment tool. This one occurs after the university has announced its intention to hire new professors to teach sculpture, art history and to chair the art department.