2025 Student Arts Expo
A highlight of our annual Student Arts Expo each March is the Bernice Spigel Prize for Excellence in the Visual Arts. Any public, private, or home-schooled senior residing or attending school in Dalton, Whitfield or Murray County is eligible for this coveted award. The Prize was created to honor Bernice Spigel, the Creative Arts Guild's first Executive Director. The Creative Arts Guild is pleased to announce the results of this year’s competition! Congratulations go to first-place winner: Dalton High Senior Ada Arevalo; and runner-up: North Murray High Senior Eve Collier. Both artists’ work was on display in Gallery ONE11 during the month of March.
Ada Arevalo is an artist and illustrator from Dalton, Georgia. She has enjoyed using acrylics, charcoal, and graphite since elementary art class. Since then, Ada has immersed herself in every art class available at her school. One of her favorite subjects to illustrate is cats because of their interesting nature, but also because of her late pet, Whisko, with whom she had a profound connection. Now in her last year of the International Baccalaureate Visual Arts program, she will graduate from Dalton High School in May with the Georgia Department of Education Fine Arts diploma seal.
Ada says “My work expresses the relationship between people and their pets. What most interests me is the complicated connection they have in the food web versus the closeness they share due to domestication. What inspires me most is the vision of a childhood surrounded by nature; one which I lacked. Because of this, I made what I wished to have experienced if circumstances had been different in my life. The young girl motif in my work represents the girls I imagine I could have been.”
All Student Arts Expo Ribbon Winners by Grade Level
PreK
1st - Layker Ridley – Westwood - Basquiat Dino King
2nd - Everett Taylor – Cedar Ridge - Giraffe
3rd – Dylan Martinez – Cedar Ridge - Untitled
HM – Sadie Diaz – Cedar Ridge - The Beach
Kindergarten
1st – Anslee Crabtree – Eton - Walrus
2nd – Caleb Taylor – Varnell - Deep Blue Sea
3rd – Melissa Ramirez – City Park - Chicken Bird
HM – Isabella Mercedes – Brookwood - Untitled
1st Grade
1st – Walker Adams – Varnell - The Water Submarine
2nd – Amelia Rose – Chatsworth - Winter Shadows in the Woods
3rd – Ezlynn Garcia Jacobo – Spring Place - Cooky Chickens
HM – Emmanuel Sanchez – Varnell - The Captain is Mad
2nd Grade
1st – Ofelia Ramirez Bautista – Chatsworth - In the Cherry Blossoms
2nd – Liana Southern – Varnell - Sleepy Lion
3rd – Rhett Waits – Varnell – Grrr, Land Ahoy
HM – Mariana Villalobos – Roan - Ink Pagoda
3rd Grade
1st – Abigail Ross – Chatsworth - Field of Wildflowers
2nd – Rosie Peters – Westwood - Basquiat Cat
3rd – Abigail Richmond – City Park - Firebird
HM – Greyson Anderson – Brookwood - Untitled
HM – Lindzy Ramirez – Westwood - Basquiat Portrait
4th Grade
1st – Abby Rogers – Chatsworth - Rose Garden
2nd – Bella Gordy – Varnell - African Dream
3rd – Shepard Robinson – Varnell - Captain
HM – Ethan Ball – Creative Arts Guild - Orangutan
5th Grade
1st - Rebecka Martinez – Varnell - Welcome to Japan
2nd – Yuliana Regaldo – Varnell - Pelican by the Seaside
3rd – Angelique Brooker – Varnell - A Wonderful Oops (3D)
HM – Ellie Ridley – Chatsworth - Abstract Red Pandas
6th Grade
1st – Layla Adail – New Hope - Winter Landscape
2nd – Camdyn Penson – New Hope - Koi
3rd – Ashley Meadows – North Whitfield - Starry Night
HM – Evelyn Herrera – Hammond Creek - Rose Value Study
7th Grade
1st – Mary Pressley – Hammond Creek - Macaw
2nd – Judy Zhou – Creative Arts Guild - Beauty of Shanghai
3rd – Jenny Sprenger – Creative Arts Guild - Purple Beauty
HM – Jacqueline Ochoa – Gladden - Untitled
8th Grade
1st – Kyleigh Higdon – Creative Arts Guild - Blue Eyed Roman
2nd – Marlei Hamilton – Valley Point - Marz (3D)
3rd – Alex Stafford – Bagley - Untitled
HM – Chloe Townsend – Bagley - Untitled
9th Grade
1st – Jenna Beavers – Northwest - Star Whale (3D)
2nd – Marely Rosas – Dalton Academy - Dia De Los Muertos
3rd – Sarah Norris – North Murray - Taste for Tacos
HM – Arya Patel – Dalton - Untitled
10th Grade
1st – Alondra Mejia – Dalton - Untitled (3D)
2nd – Namia Mendiola - Coahulla - Untitled
3rd – Lila Cochran – North Murray - Love's Last Gesture
HM – Haven Earley – North Murray - Monroe Kisses
11th Grade
1st - Huda Rizvi Waseem – Dalton - Untitled
2nd – Melanie Alvarez – Southeast - Exploring Chattanooga
3rd – Benny Phung – Dalton - Light
HM – Chloe Sexton – North Murray - Beautiful Warning (3D)
12th Grade
1st – Jamir Sanchez – Northwest - Ender Dragon
2nd – Sophie Stewart – North Murray - Objects of Identity
3rd – Pablo Montoya Perez – North Murray - Tongue: Red Panda's Captured Curiosity
HM – Dylan Ridley – Murray County - Cheese Ball Fun
The O.N. Jonas Foundation Art Together Collaborative Awards by Grade:
K-2: Chatsworth Elem. 1st Grade – Italian Mosaic
3-5: Westwood 4th grade - Arcimboldo Portrait
9-12: Dalton High - Catamount Singers
9-12: Coahulla Creek - Bat Comic and Characters