The Glenwood Springs Center for the Arts’ “Battle of the Walls” arts show opens tonight. The exhibition features the work of some of the best high school artists from Basalt to Parachute.
Terry Muldoon puts together the event, and calls it her baby. Muldoon went to Catholic School, as a kid and won an award. Things didn’t go exactly as planned, though.
“They put me up on stage to talk about my art piece,” Muldoon said. “They did not like what I said, so they dragged me off the stage and I never did art again.”
The piece featured things she called “pregnant flowers” which didn’t go over too well with her religious teachers. That moment scared her away from art.
She got a degree in biology. Not until she was 35 did she get back into a creative mindset. As Muldoon puts it, she sent her son off to kindergarten, and she went to art school. Since then, she’s become the head of the arts department at the Glenwood Springs Center for the Arts. There, she started the “Battle of the Walls”.
The event started out of a need for a place for high school students to display their work other than in their own hallways. Muldoon Googled the name “battle of the walls”, drawing the name from the obvious “battle of the bands”.
The art ranges from photography to fully sewn dresses. There’s even silver-smithing. Many of the works reference self-identity and feeling like you’re in, or out of the crowd — emotions nearly everyone felt in high school.
“I can actually see the pain in some of this artwork,” Muldoon said. “It’s not easy being a high school student in our day and age. That’s part of the beauty — being able to convey your feelings and put it out through art.”
Eight high schools compete for individual and team awards. Each school gets a wall section to curate with what they have chosen as the best pieces from their school. Each school is judged on the total look and feel of their section, as well as each piece on its own.
Two scholarships are on the table as well, but for Muldoon it is about more than that.
“This is a celebration of art, for young artists to celebrate themselves,” she said. “This isn’t about being good enough. It’s about participating. Participating in art, participating in life.”
Muldoon said art saved her life. Even when she was told she wasn’t good enough to do it, she kept going. It is a message that she wants the people in the show to take home.
The scholarships and awards will be handed out tonight.
