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Art students in grades 6-12 across 20 East Tennessee counties put their best work to the test in the East Tennessee Regional Art Exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art. When the judging was final, junior Aaron Dotson of William Blount High came away with the top finish in his category, graphic arts.

Dotson's finished work, which he entitled "Metallic Compass" is currently on display at the museum along with the work of other participants. All will remain there through Jan. 11, 2009. There were eight others from William Blount -- Aaron Carroll, Mary Miller, Kenneth Trotter, Tyler Horne, Blake Payne, Stephen Smith and Erica White -- who also submitted works. Maryville High School participants included Christopher Parker, Brad Fischer, Stephen Kiningham, Marta Lee, Morgan McClanahan, Victor Medina and Elizabeth Gombert. Jacob Tallent represented Heritage High School.

Categories for the competition include ceramic, drawing, digital imagery, mixed media, painting, computer graphics, sculpture, traditional photography and printmaking.

According to Dotson, who said his project took a couple of days in Melanie Pritchard's graphic arts classroom, the effort was definitely worth it. He will be awarded two scholarships, one worth $2,000 per year to Watkins College of Art, Design and Film in Nashville and the other one worth $1,500 each year to the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.

Pritchard was notified of the winners less than a week ago. She came into class bragging on her students and saved the best news about Dotson for last.

He will now be recognized at the awards ceremony to be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at KMA. Pritchard will also attend.

Wide-open future

This proud teacher said students like Dotson, who have already had a year and a half of graphic arts, are not hard to motivate when it comes to projects like this.

"These are the high-tech computer kids," she said. "We did this as a week-long class assignment. The contest was left pretty wide open and they love that."

Dotson said his interest in computer art goes back to his middle school days. He still has a year of high school left before having to make a decision about his future, but he is definitely looking into the two schools who have granted him the scholarships. As part of this art exhibit alone, scholarships totaling nearly $500,000 are being handed out.

This was Dotson's first time entering the contest, and also Pritchard's, who is in her 10th year of teaching at William Blount. With this first-year success, it won't be the last. William Blount art teacher Doris Poppelreiter has four of the students in her classes that participated in this contest.

The creations of these Blount County artists were up against those of Austin-East Academy, Bearden High, Campbell County High, Central High, Christian Academy of Knoxville, Farragut High, Gatlinburg-Pittman and several others including Karns High and Oak Ridge High.

On this class day before Thanksgiving, Pritchard's advanced students were working on holiday animations. She said for those who continue on with this line of work, the possibilities are endless.

"Everywhere you look there is art," she said. "This is about art and that's about art. We are a nation controlled by images."