Subject: Sophomore Student Artist Award
Student’s Name: Amadeus Valensi
Date: May 10, 2011

Ms. Cotillard, head of the Art department and French teacher at Tompkin’s Academy, was proud to award this year’s Top Student Artist Award to Amadeus Valensi for his painting entitled “Bulls-eye” (Photo, right).

“It means whatever you want it to mean, but to me it represents loss, desire, and the courage to survive,” Amadeus told reporters at the Academy’s school newspaper when asked the meaning of this painting.
Unlike other artwork Ms. Cotillard evaluated, Valensi’s art was displayed on an 8 by 10 piece of wood allowing the natural grain to show through the surface. Reporters were unable to get a clear answer as to why he chose this form of canvas, but the result is beautifully intense.
The painting is of a boy with a single eye visible. The other one seems to be crossed out, indicated by the somewhat slashed-looking X. The words written across the boy’s face are not legible, another part of the painting Valensi avoided to comment on.
“I’ll leave that a mystery for you to solve,” was all he had to say on that note.

Amadeus Valensi (Photo, left) is currently heading into his Junior year at Tompkin’s Academy and is from Sulphur, Oklahoma. In his spare time he enjoyes playing basketball and is one of the school’s top forwards on the team. His parents, Nathan and Emma Valensi, are co-owners of a local sports bar. When asked where he got his artistic ability, they said it must’ve been from his great grandfather who used to make watches and that that was the extent of the creativity in their family.

You can direct your questions to Amadeus’s personal page here.

This post was sponsored by the faculty and staff at Tompkin’s Academy.

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