Lake Forest High School Artist Get Place in Congress

Acts of Congress are passed for a variety of reasons and for Lake Forest High School’s Cullen Casey and two award winning North Shore high school artists it means exposure for their creativity.

Casey, Nicole Otake of Glenbrook North High  School and Vernon Hills High School’s Kayla Guo were this year’s Congressional Art Competition winners from the 10th District.

Earlier: Lake Forest High School Artist’s Work To Be Displayed in Hall of Congress

The three winners along with the work of 41 other artists were on display Friday in the office of Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Deerfield) who personally handed out the awards and told the gathering of students, parents, teachers and friends how the contest became a law.

“This is an act of Congress,” Schneider said of the 1982 bill which created the contest and turned an unattractive tunnel into an art gallery. “Now 435 pieces of art will be seen by (members of Congress) each time we walk through the tunnel from our offices (to the Capitol).”

Otake’s “Fusion” will hang in the tunnel between one of the Congressional office buildings and the Capitol for a year, Cullen’s “Tree of Life” will adorn the walls of Schneider’s Lincolnshire office and Guo’s “That Girl in That Picture Making That Face” will be on display in Schneider’s Washington office.

Watch the video of each artist standing by their work describing it to better understand the creation and the creator.

In all, students competed from Vernon Hills, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Northbrook, Deerfield, Highland Park, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Waukegan, Gurnee, Long Grove, Wheeling, Mount Prospect and Hawthorn Woods.

Additional entrants from Lake Forest and Lake Bluff were Darby Clarke, Stephanie Coats, Genna Crofts, Grace Demet, Danlin Huang, Claire Jones, Yuanxin Song and Caroline Watts.

For complete Lake Forest News, sign up for our free newsletter,"like" us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.