Words or Pictures

The Words or Pictures competition took place at Southmoreland High School in Alverton, PA on Thursday, April 10.  The annual competition is based off of a film of the same name that focuses on the power of visual art and the written word.  In the film, an English teacher and an Art teacher enter into a debate about the more powerful medium: words or pictures.  Students from all over Westmoreland County were invited to enter into the debate.  Before arriving, they decided if they wanted to compete in the "word" category or the "picture category.  Once they arrived on event day, students were introduced to the rules of the competition and assigned the theme of "Imagination."  After the brief introduction, students had two hours to create an entry for the competition.  Seven "Word" students worked in the Student Union and wrote either one poem, short story, personal narrative, or persuasive essay.  Nineteen "Picture" students worked in the Art Room and created a painting, drawing, or mixed media art piece using basic materials like tempera and acrylic paints, brushes, colored pencils, markers, pastels, drawing pencils, charcoal, sharpie pens, and drawing paper.

At the end of the two hour creation time frame, Southmoreland students, faculty, and administration judged each piece to choose winners of each category and an overall winner.  Congratulations to Freshman Bianca Bondi for winning 1st Place in the "pictures" category and 1st place overall, beating out 25 other students.  Today it was decided that pictures are more powerful than words!  Bondi's response to winning was, "There were a lot of helpful materials to use, and the time limit was reasonable."  She is "glad to have won" with a piece that illustrates "what happens when your creativity is overflowing so much that it can explode out of your head."