Total of 138 elementary and middle school students earn awards, artwork posted to online gallery
RIVERSIDE – Geoffrey Tucker doesn’t believe the myth that all great artists are simply talented from birth. As a former math educator who now teaches art at Ysmael Villegas Middle School in the Alvord Unified School District, Mr. Tucker regularly reminds his students that artistic ability is no different than being good at writing, playing basketball, or mastering multiplication tables.
“It takes work to get better at anything you do,” Mr. Tucker said. “Practicing over and over to get better at something is how artists become great.”
Several students in Mr. Tucker’s middle school art classroom who have been practicing their craft, are among the 138 students who were honored for their artistic submissions in the Visual Arts category of the 2024 Riverside County Art Connects Virtual Arts Competition.
A total of 489 submissions were received from students in grades TK-8th from 67 schools and 18 districts in Riverside County.
Students whose artwork earned first, second, or third place honors will receive a plaque and their work is currently on display on the Art Connects web page. Certificates will recognize multiple Honorable Mention submissions.
Visual Art Winners
Transitional Kindergarten/Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten
First Place: Jaylene Resendez, Stone Avenue Elementary School, Jurupa USD
Second Place: Elias Cann, John F. Kennedy Elementary School, Riverside USD
Third Place: Damien Thorn, Abby Reinke Elementary School, Temecula Valley USD
1st/2nd Grades
First Place: Nova Hernandez, Abby Reinke Elementary School, Temecula Valley USD
Second Place: Manvitha Akarsh, Abby Reinke Elementary School, Temecula Valley USD
Third Place: Norah Taylor, Riverside Virtual School, Riverside USD
3rd/4th Grades
First Place: Ameya Nair, Eastvale Elementary School, Corona-Norco USD
Second Place: Bryan Bernal-Cruz, Mecca Elementary School, Coachella Valley USD
Second Place: Sophia Alvarez, Mecca Elementary School, Coachella Valley USD
Third Place: Antonio Coloma II, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, Desert Sands USD
Third Place: Amaya Barba, Callie Kirkpatrick Elementary School, Menifee Union SD
5th/6th Grades
First Place: Joshua Shurui Zhang, Pauba Valley Elementary School, Temecula Valley USD
Second Place: Eden Fairfax, Sycamore Academy, Lake Elsinore USD
Second Place: Linyu Ma, David A Brown Middle School, Lake Elsinore USD
Second Place: Lucy Eyler, Tony Tobin Elementary School, Temecula Valley USD
Third Place: Ivy Balliger, Mark Twain Elementary School, Riverside USD
Third Place: Edwuin Lemus, Westside Elementary School, Coachella Valley USD
7th/8th Grades
First Place: Alabama Salce, Ysmael Villegas Middle School, Alvord USD
First Place: Harlie Ruiz, El Cerrito Middle School, Corona-Norco USD
Second Place: Brianna Gallagher, Dr. Augustine Ramirez Intermediate School, Corona-Norco USD
Second Place: Diana Rodriguez, David A Brown Middle School, Lake Elsinore USD
Third Place: Isabella Ortega, Ysmael Villegas Middle School, Alvord USD
Third Place: Lyla Avalos, El Cerrito Middle School, Corona-Norco USD
Third Place: Liliana Becerra, Landmark Middle School, Moreno Valley USD
Categories
Art Connects – VISUAL ART
Art Connects - DANCE
- February 12 - Submission window opens
Art Connects - THEATRE
- March 11 - Submission window opens
Art Connects - FILM
- April 8 - Submission window opens
* all submission windows open on first day at 8 a.m. and close on final day at 5 p.m.
Inside the Classroom of Middle School Art Teacher Geoffrey Tucker
On Mondays and Wednesdays in Geoffrey Tucker’s classroom at Ysmael Villegas Middle School in the Alvord Unified School District, students can be found working on art projects like masks of ancient gods, illustrating Aesop’s Fables, or depicting what the spinning the wheel of characters and scenes spits out for students to draw that week.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Mr. Tucker’s advanced students participate in the “Drawing of the Week”, where they follow Mr. Tucker’s lead as he draws something on the big screen in the room and students follow along.
Mr. Tucker started out as a math teacher, but always took art courses in college because he wanted to be an art teacher someday.
“When I was a student at California State University, San Bernardino, I would take back-to-back math classes for hours, and then wind down my day with the zen of a ceramics or painting class,” Mr. Tucker said.
Eighth grade student Isabella Ortega is one of several students from Mr. Tucker’s class who also sees the value of art as an outlet and a tool for creative expression.
“Art helps me wind down from the stress of tests, assignments, and projects. It is a way to get past all of that, and it helps me express all my emotions,” Isabella said. “Art also helps me with projects in other classes that require drawing techniques.”
Isabella has loved art since she was young, even though Mr. Tucker’s classes at Villegas Middle School are her first official art classes. Her favorite mediums are air dry clay and stop-motion filmmaking.
One of Isabella’s teachers asked if she could keep a recent shield project, and eventually hung Isabella’s work in her classroom.
“It’s nice to hear my teachers ask if they can keep the art I turn for an assignment on their walls,” Isabella said. “It makes me happy to see it every time I go into their rooms.”
Isabella was previously recognized for multiple award-winning submissions in the 2023 Riverside County Office of Education Dia de los Muertos Art Competition—including a piece that Mr. Tucker purchased to hang in his own home.
For the 2024 Art Connects competition, Isabella was one of 138 students who were honored for their submissions in the visual arts category of the competition—including a total of four award winners from Mr. Tucker’s class.
Isabella received a 3rd place award for her piece, Masters, a multi-canvas acrylic paint depiction of four art masters who inspired her: Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh, and Leonardo Da Vinci. She also received an honorable mention for her pottery/sculpture entry, Angel.
Back in the classroom, Mr. Tucker works with new and experienced artists every day, meeting them where they are, and introducing them to the elements of art and principles of design to help them learn how to formulate their own critiques.
“With my advanced students, I’m not really teaching as much as I’m just trying to get out of their way,” Mr. Tucker said. “They just need a place to try things out.”
Mr. Tucker has recognized that some students step into his classroom thinking art class will be “easy and chill”, but they soon find out they’ll be doing a lot more than coloring all day.
“We work hard in this class. Students learn how to take feedback, to critique themselves, and to learn how art can actually be objectively good, and not just look cool.”
At the end of each class project, one of the questions that Mr. Tucker requires his students to ask of themselves is: “If I was to do this project again, what would I do differently?”
Isabella has seized on that self-reflection question and regularly applies it to her life outside of Mr. Tucker’s classroom.
“I never looked at art that way before, and, now that I do, I can ask that question of anything that I put out there for other people to see—even outside of my art,” Isabella said.
“Mr. Tucker is very encouraging. He reminds us to trust the process, and to keep going with our projects —even when we are feeling like it isn’t coming out very well,” Isabella said. “Art is very motivational. It teaches you to follow through on things, and to continue with something even when it’s hard.”
Art Connects is a virtual student arts competition aimed at showcasing the artistic abilities of Riverside County’s elementary and middle school-aged students in five different age divisions and four different categories:
The competition is open to all students in grades TK-8 attending public, charter, private, parochial, or home school programs in Riverside County. For each of the four categories, elementary and middle school students can submit their contributions via links on the Art Connects web page.
Submissions can be made by parents/guardians, or by teachers via the Google Form on the Riverside County Office of Education Art Connects web page once the submission windows open for each category. Limits are up to five entries per student, and 10 entries per teacher.
During the first weeks and months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the initial Art Connects virtual competition organized by the Riverside County Office of Education helped students channel their creative energy—leading to more than 1,300 original submissions.
For additional information on Art Connects, or additional arts programs and resources in Riverside County schools, contact Louisa Higgins, Arts Administrator, Riverside County Office of Education, at lhiggins@rcoe.us.