Florida Catholic | Christmas Art Contest Winner

FC SKETCH | ED FOSTER JR.
Florida Catholic Christmas Art Contest winner, Carolina Valdes-Lora.

Winner: ‘All smiles’

KAREN OSBORNE | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 12.21.07

To high school junior Carolina Valdes-Lora, Mary has no nationality — she’s someone to whom every culture can relate.

“My dad was asking,” she recalled. “He couldn’t really tell what nationality she was. I don’t really have a type of vision of how I see Mary. I see her as a motherly type, a very genuine and calm figure.”

Carolina, 16, a student in the International Baccalaureate program at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami, is this year’s winner of the Florida Catholic’s 2007 Christmas Cover Art Contest. Her charcoal portrait of Mary and the baby Jesus appears on the cover of five editions of the Florida Catholic newspaper and a multimedia presentation on the home page of the Florida Catholic Online Edition.

Carolina used charcoal pencils and background pastels to create her “serene and gentle” version of Mary, a new mother who was “genuinely sweet” and “relaxed.”

She chose to use charcoal because she felt its ability to convey texture and softness contributed to that vision of Mary. While charcoal can be difficult to erase, the pencils “give a soft touch, and more control over the painting,” she explained. Carolina, who attends St. Hugh and St. Robert Bellarmine parishes in Miami, said that using charcoal helped her create the emotion needed to “connect with how I wanted to portray Mary as a serene figure,” she explained.

Upon hearing about the Florida Catholic art contest, the art department at Carrollton decided to use it as an opportunity to introduce figure drawing from life to the International Baccalaureate art students. Art teacher Patricia Wiesen, who also attends St. Hugh, called a local university, hired a model and dressed her in garb the real Mary would have worn, allowing the 18 students to choose their own media and approach the project from their own perspectives.

She said that students themselves decided if they’d want to draw her directly as the model appeared, or add a halo, stars or other traditional aspects found in historical Marian portraits. The students also did research on costuming and images of Mary throughout the years.

“This was the first time we had models at Carrollton,” Wiesen said. “It really helped the girls in their figure drawing. … Mary often reflects the mores and the style or what’s important to particular cultures, so that’s really fun to learn. … There isn’t a lot written about what she wore, so artists throughout the years have given her the garb that to them would be holy or sacred.”

Figure drawing from life helps art students “capture the structure and essence of the subject matter,” she said. “It makes such a difference when you’re working from actually seeing the subject matter, rather than working from the mind’s eye.”

“I love drawing from life,” said Carolina. “It’s easier, in the sense that you see all the specific shadows. I’m very picky on contrast. I like contrast and the values. That’s what makes portraits look more realistic.”

Along with her artistic side, Carolina is involved with a number of activities at her school and hopes someday to become a doctor, possibly working in the field of public health. She’s the youngest of three and both of her parents are physicians. She considers her family to be “No. 1, besides God.”

“I love people and I always wanted to make a difference in someone’s life. Hopefully, I can do that by being a doctor. Ever since I was little, I would take care of my toy animals and give them medicine and fake casts. (My parents) are extremely hard workers and I hope to one day live up to that. I really admire medicine” and what doctors do, she explained.

Carolina, who loves reading and movies, also serves as a retreat leader for other students at Carrollton. Recently, she participated in a Kairos retreat that prompted her to reflect on the importance of taking time out to pray — something that she says isn’t always easy for today’s busy teens.

“A lot of the girls at our school are really hard workers. Sometimes we just forget to be centered and forget about God, that he should be No. 1 in our lives. We need to take time for ourselves and pray and just be with God one on one. Hopefully, I’ve brought that out there for the girls,” she said.

The Kairos experience, which encourages students to live “on God’s time” for the duration of the retreat, helped her become “centered and focused,” she said.

“I took a lot from (the retreat). It’s very difficult to be a teenager and keep up with your friends and family, and then pressure, school — what I got out of Kairos was to set aside your busy schedule and leave all your troubles and hardships behind and have time with God,” Carolina said.

Carolina speaks from experience: She’s very busy outside her academic and artistic commitments, having served as class president twice in the past and as current vice president for both the Fight for the Cure club and the Future Doctors of America chapter at Carrollton.

This year, she was also elected to the Coral Gables Youth Advisory Board, which “helps benefit the youths in Miami and makes sure they are participating in the community,” she said. The board hopes to raise more than $5,000 for this year’s Relay for Life.

Carolina, whose family has traveled extensively, said one of her most formative trips was to Israel and the Holy Land. She accompanied her family and Father Omar Huesca, pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish in Miami, on a trip that brought her from Bethlehem to the traditional site of Golgotha. Being able to touch the ground at those places “made a huge impact on my life,” she said. “I just thought that was incredible,” she said. “It really helped me mature a lot.”

Italy was another favorite destination. “Besides its culture, I loved the atmosphere — the people are so welcoming,” Carolina said. Italian culture goes along with her personality, she said. “I’m all smiles, I love people, I love hugging.”

Wiesen, who said Carolina always “gives 150 percent at whatever she’s doing,” hopes that her art students encountered more than just a lesson in figure drawing through the contest assignment.

“When these young artists are drawing, the intensity of their focus — it’s almost a meditation when you’re really focused in art. It’s a way into the spiritual. … There was a certain energy there that was really wonderful. I felt it as a teacher. To see what came out of that process, out of that moment in time, is thrilling,” said Wiesen.

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