Photo courtesy of Lorence Medina.

This is like the Academy Awards of High School art and writing.

Senior Lorence Medina began taking Mr. Terembes’ art class his freshman year at Santaluces. He first began painting after progressing into Draw/Paint 2, yet two years later, he is the recipient of a Silver Medal at the national level of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

He is the first student from Santaluces to win at the national level in two years, since the graduation of Jorge Aguilar.

Medina was awarded a silver medal for his painting, “Dali”, inspired by the artist Salvador Dali. The painting was originally created for a class assignment.

“We had to emulate an artist while choosing from three different portraits: Salvador Dali, Marylin Monroe, and Albert Einstein. I chose to emulate and used Salvador Dali as my refference,” said Medina.

In his finished product, Medina aimed to maintain Dali’s most characteristic features and even did background research on the artist to aid in his artwork.

“I studied multiple paintings he has done and made sure to use his major characteristics. I also researched his museum and used the one in Spain,” said Medina.

Art teacher Mr. Terembes has known Medina since the latter’s freshman year, and has seen his development as an artist.

“When Lorence first started, he was copying other artists, and was inspired by James Coleman and Guy Harvey. Over the course of four years, I have watched him develop and now begin to express his own inner feelings,” said Mr. Terembes.

Although Medina does not plan to pursue art as a career after high school, Mr. Terembes is proud of Medina, and believes that art will always be a part of who he is.

“I truly believe Lorence is an extremely gifted artist. I don’t know if he will pursue art in the future, but it will always be a major part of his life and an expression source,” said Mr. Terembes.