East Meadow student artists reflect on time in 'Long Island's Best' competition

Two of “Long Island’s Best” were students at East Meadow High School.

The Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington honored senior Veronica Vogel and junior Emily Marckesano, during its annual Long Island’s Best Young Artists exhibition.

The exhibition is the only judged competition on Long Island that accepts high school art submissions. Each year, students in grades nine through 12 are invited to create pieces inspired by artwork shown in the museum.

This year’s exhibition ran from March 30 to May 5 and featured 87 pieces created by students from almost 70 different high schools around Long Island. The featured student artists were selected from among more than 450 applicants, and juried by Meredith Brown, the museum’s consulting curator, and Andrea Wozny, a guest judge.

Vogel and Marckesano are members of the National Art Honor Society, which submits artwork to the Best Young Artist exhibition every year.

Vogel’s piece, “Earthly Bonds” — inspired by “American Rustic” by Adam Straus — is a gouache and oil pastel painting depicting three figures sitting on a bench and facing a house across a lake. Gouache and oil pastels are both mediums used to create art.

Vogel based the painting on a photo taken of three of her friends sitting on a bench.

“I saw them there, I was like, this is the perfect picture to capture what I need to do for this competition,” she said.

Vogel said her artwork explores her perception of home, house and nature.

“It’s not really about the structure, it’s more about the family, the support, your friends,” Vogel said. “I find a very supportive environment to be nature.”

Marckesano’s artwork, “Piece by Piece,” is an embroidered quilt made of six-sided pieces of fabric collected from friends and family. She was inspired by Amanda Valdez’s “New Me,” another fabric piece on display at Heckscher.

Marckesano said her piece is made of dresses, “well-loved clothes” and sentimental items from her grandparents and great-grandparents, all sewn together using a technique called English paper quilting.

“I really like to express myself with art,” Marckesano said. “And I like to include my family and my friends, just in drawings, or even like this piece that I created. It tied together my family and my friends and my connections with everyone. I feel like this was a very nice opportunity, and I’m really grateful for it.”

Vogel said she holds a deep appreciation for art.

“I love how expressive it is,” she said. “I love how everyone can do art.”

One part of art she enjoys the most is the personal touch.

“No two people’s art will ever look the same, and I love it,” she said. “It’s so unique. Me and my sister — I have a twin sister — both of us do art, but yet our artwork is so very different. It means different things to both of us.”

Vogel said she aspires to become a pediatrician, but will continue to pursue art as a personal interest, maintaining a delicate work-life balance.

“I don’t want to ever stop creating — I want to always be able to draw, even if it’s just for myself,” she said. “But I don’t want to make a job out of it. I find that a lot of people who make jobs out of their art, like, they don’t enjoy it the same, and they lose the love they had for it. I don’t want to lose that.”

On the opening day of the exhibition, artists were allowed to bring guests to view the collection.

“It was really, really nice,” Marckesano said. “I brought all my family and friends. I was very proud of myself. My family was very proud. And it’s just a huge accomplishment. I’m definitely going to enter again next year if we continue to do it.”

Even though the gallery is no longer open for in-person viewing, all of the artwork featured in the student gallery, as well as the pieces that inspired them, can be viewed online at Heckscher.org/gallery/?post=19484.