In the News

The Future is Here

April 8th, 2013

Jonathan Denton
Daniel Hand High School, Madison, and Educational Center for the Arts, New Haven
First Place, Sculpture, for Billie

It's hard to believe looking at his intricately plotted sculpture, titled Billie, but Jonathan Denton says math is not his strong suit. Still, it helped him to complete the tour de force piece. "This is literally the only time I'm good at math, but if I need to utilize it I can, and I think this is a good example of that," says Denton of Billie, a sculpture inspired by Pointillism and the great blues singer Billie Holiday. "I got the idea from Pointillism paintings-how you use little bits of color to build a larger picture...and the ideas of perspective-and I thought it would be interesting to combine them in a sculpture form."

Denton drilled literally thousands of differently sized holes into wood strips; the effect reveals a portrait of Holiday when the light hits it just right. "I chose her because [her story] mimicked the final product of the sculpture, where she had a very tough life growing up...but when she could shine was on stage in the right light and in the right space. With the lights on in a corner, this piece is just a pile of wood, though from the right perspective and looking at it from the right direction, it becomes a work of art, much like a performer on stage."

Denton also has two digital prints in the exhibit.

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