By Dan King
A Whitehall High School student will have her artwork displayed at one of the region’s greatest art galleries.
Senior Heather Michaud has been selected as one of 187 artists to have their work shown at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls.
“It’s an honor,” Michaud said. “At the same time, it’s confidence boosting to have somebody who doesn’t know me, who knows nothing about my artwork, who doesn’t even know my first name, pick my piece.”
Michaud worked with illustration pens for two to three weeks in her art classes and study halls to create an elaborate, multi-dimensional web of art, featuring varying characters, emotions, feelings and moods.
“In most of my artwork I like to express a feeling, whether it’s happy, sad, funny, goofy, whatever,” she said.
One day, Michaud was in Elizabeth Lyng’s art class, and she was stuck in what she referred to as an artistic “funk,” so she began doodling on a little card.
“It was just something I had doodled on a little card,” Michaud said. “Mrs. Lyng saw it and said ‘why don’t you do that, but bigger’.”
So, Michaud began making her doodle into a larger drawing and began taking inspiration from friends’ artwork.
“When you’re in the art room for days and days, like I often am, you see a lot of different people’s art work and sort of take inspiration from them,” Michaud said. “I got a lot of inspiration from my friends and my boyfriend.”
The Hyde then contacted Lyng and other area art teachers, who sent some pieces of art from their top students. That collection tallied up to 1,100 samples of art, sent on flash drives to avoid crowding the Hyde Collection too much.
The judges exhaustively reviewed the art work, with the task of narrowing it down to 187.
“At first I was like ‘oh, that’s cool,’ but then I kind of thought about how big of a deal it is,” Michaud said, adding that she waited an entire weekend to find out the verdict.
Ultimately, Michaud was selected.
“I’m very competitive, so it was exciting for me,” she said.
In addition to art, Michaud takes her competitive spirit to the classroom, the soccer pitch, the softball field and the dance floor. She was also a member of the Distinguished Young Women program, back in October.
She is the son of Amy and Dennis Michaud and has a brother, Tyler.
The art will be on display at the Hyde Collection from April 24 until May 31.