Artistic genes: Three generations of Conifer family win prestigious award

Three generations of artists in a local family have won a prestigious art award — though 72 years apart.

Conifer resident Michael Wisnieski, his daughter Jenna and Wisnieski’s father, Ray Wisniewski, all have won the regional Alliance for Young Artists & Writers’ Scholastic Art & Writing Award. It is also known simply as the Gold Key Award, and recipients receive a gold key lapel pin.

“This was a really cool experience,” Jenna said. “It feels great to have my dad and grandpa and for me all to get the same award.”

Jenna, a freshman at Conifer High School, won the award in March 2011 for a 9-by-12-inch scratchboard drawing of an orangutan. Her dad, the art teacher at West Jefferson and Marshdale elementary schools, won the award in 1972 for a photograph of a gnarled tree. Grandfather Ray, a retired architect who lives in Connecticut, won in 1939 for a linoleum-block scratch design of buildings.

The award program

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a nonprofit organization that showcases teenagers with exceptional writing and artistic talent. Mountain area elementary and middle schools participate in the program.

The program began in 1923, and students in grades seven through 12 can submit work in 28 art and writing categories for a chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited or published. Regional winners of the Gold Key Awards are then judged on the national level.

Grandfather’s award

Ray Wisnieski, 88, lives in Glastonbury, Conn., and loves art, drawing and artistic presentation in all its forms.

Ray said that while in school he developed an interested in printing and said he pestered his mother to buy him a printing press on display in a variety store. The press cost $9.95.

“My mother said if I graduated seventh grade, she would buy me the press,” he said. “I still have that cast-iron printing press in the basement.”

Ray said he was bent on making a newspaper for his school and setting all the type but didn’t have a way of having illustrations. He cut linoleum blocks with knives and illustrated the newspaper that way. The highly detailed work was painstaking.

“Mother would watch and say, ‘You’re going to break your eyes doing that,’ ” Ray said.

He designed a street scene with a lot of buildings, and, when done, it was about the size of a large postage stamp. He created a large print with four to five colors, mounted it and entered into the contest.

Ray is not sure where the artwork is, and the Gold Key itself is lost in time, but he still has a picture of himself wearing the lapel pin.

“It was a unique thing, and I won first prize,” he said. “That’s a prime prize of the scholastic art competition when you win that golden pin.”

The next generation

Michael said his high school art teacher wanted him to submit one of his many pieces.

“I really liked art and was producing some good stuff,” he said.

Michael took a photo of a gnarled oak tree among other trees in the backwoods of Connecticut.

“The print got strangely exposed, kind of by accident, but we looked at the print and said, ‘That’s kind of cool,’ ” Michael said. “It’s part of the artist’s job to accept the happy accidents and to recognize them.”

Michael said the award gave him a boost, even though winning it was unexpected. During his senior year, he took more art courses and began to consider himself an artist. He graduated with the idea of being everything from a fine artist to a teacher.

“The two things just kind of merged together,” he said.

Michael said he tries to teach his students that creating art or writing is fun.

“Fun is completely underestimated, and that’s really what it’s about. It’s about playing with serious fun,” he said.

A daughter’s artistic accomplishments

Michael shared his fun philosophy with his daughter Jenna, whose artwork was displayed at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.

“It felt really cool to be part of something where everyone had their best work, and some of it went onto to national level,” Jenna said.

Jenna created her work as an eighth-grader at West Jefferson Middle School. Now she’s a freshman at Conifer High. There were challenges in making the image. 

“It took a lot of layering,” Jenna said. “You have to outline the shapes first and then have to look at the difference in light and dark.”

The black scratchboard meant Jenna had to work in the opposite manner of traditional drawing — apply more pressure with the knife for darker areas and use less pressure for lighter tones.