1st Place, Personality Profile
2023-24, Division 4, News Writing
By Eric Shan
The Crane-Clarion
Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School
Just as Niiwa, the Chinese mother goddess, once molded humans out of clay, senior Cynthia Qian breathes life into her ceramics pieces. Her rich, varied ceramics portfolio of floral vases and wave-like compositions containing allusions to nature, Chinese culture, and the organic earned Qian this year’s prestigious Thistle Award.
The Thistle is presented by the Fine Arts Department to a senior artist who has showcased a remarkable level of dedication and talent in their medium of choice. A faculty member from each of six artsitc mediums makes one nomation, and an outside juror names the winner after reviewing all of the student work.
Assistant Curator of Collections at the Cranbrook Art Museum Kat Goffnet acted as this year’s juror.
Qian works to continually improve on her craft in both outward complexity and depth in her underlying messages, having taken ceramics in five different semesters. She began her ceramics journey with more functional pieces, such as bowls, teapots, and vases, but has expanded since to more decorative works.
‘Wonderful Work’
Joe Smith, Qian’s ceramics teacher, praised her talent and perseverance when dealing with obstacles.
“She makes wonderful work and continually challenges herself, whether it be with larger-sized clay or embellishments,” Smith said. “I’ve taught a lot of good students, but she’s the best student I’ve had in 30 years. Powerful.”
Qian had to overcome the varying timeframe during which the clay dries, ultimately dictating her pace and ability in tackling new pieces. To maximize efficiency, she often juggled multiple projects at the same time, with most being completed within a week.
“Clay is a very sensitive medium,” Qian said. “All of my pieces begin with a simple, wheel-thrown cylinder that I will then alter and manipulate into their final forms.”
Her most recent works are influenced by the nuances of her mind and emotions, acting as a holistic self-reflection and a representation of her identity in a physical form.
For example, Qian’s moon jars and wave vases pay homage to her namesake, the moon goddess, and the coastal town where she grew up.
In the same way, “In Their Eyes” features floral vases that altogether capture the female Chinese-American experience. Qian uses purposeful color motifs and symbolism through flowers, callbacks to her culture and heritage, as tools to convey the social objectification of women.
The malleable nature of her medium enables her to stretch and mold her visions into more material creations as she sees fit.
“Clay is a medium that synthesizes the natural with the man-made; each of my pieces is created as much by the forces of nature as I myself,” Qian wrote in her artist statement. “I am constantly inspired by the unpredictability of the medium, the extent of change that can occur in the kiln.”
Qian worked in the Academy of Art and the Kingswood ceramics studio for her Senior May, independently creating more ceramic artwork.
She will attend the University of Michigan in the fall.
The Final Six
The four other finalists for the Thistle have been presented with awards in their mediums: Rai-Ching Yu for design, Alina Dydyshka for photography, Elli Moen for metalsmithing. and Veena Bulusu for weaving. Kaelin Behlmer, who received the Zoltan Sepeshy Award in Drawing & Painting. was also the winner of the Jan Werstein Award, the runner-up for the Thistle.
Behlmer shadowed an interior designer for her Senior May and will be attending the Rhode Island School of Design next year.
For her submission to the Thistle, rather than picking out a few works that were individual standouts, Behlmer rearranged her completed pieces until a cohesive collection of paintings emerged, complementing each other in color and style.
Out of Behlmer’ s expansive art portfolio, these five paintings reflect her evolution from a free-form approach to having more of an eye for structural integrity.
Nonetheless, she still retains her characteristic inner passion that gravitates her toward painting anything she finds exciting.
“There are two types of artists: some who enjoy the process, and some who just like the final piece,” Behlmer said. “I’d be some sort of art collector if I didn’t enjoy painting. but I find that the pieces I labor on the most are also the ones I appreciate the most.”
NW-15. Personality Profile
The personality profile captures the life, interests, accomplishments of well-known or interesting people, based on interviews from multiple sources. The subject(s) should have experiences, thoughts and accomplishments worth reporting. Anecdotes add to the personality profile.
Judging Criteria
- Lead captures attention, arouses curiosity; reason for sketch is made clear early in story
- Emphasizes fresh angle; individualizes person
- Colorful, lively presentation; effective form/style
- Descriptive writing demonstrates the concept of “show, don’t tell”
- Reflects adequate research, sound interviewing techniques from a variety of sources
- Avoids encyclopedic listing of subject’s accomplishments
- Effective use of quotes
- Interesting; appeals to the emotions
- Proper diction/grammar