a mass of twisting shades. At first glance Young Writers Project receives hundreds of submissions on young- it seems abstract, the shapes and colors writersproject.org from students across Vermont, the U.S. and beyond. meaninglessly thrown together to create a piece semi-pleasing to view. Most people Each week we select the best work for publication in this newspaper, take one look, assume theyve seen it all, and in The Voice, on vpr.net, vtdigger.org and more. This week, we and move on. A few will pause a moment, present responses to Art: Think of your life as a piece of art. Whats in squint, feel as if they can make out a mes- sage amidst the hazy greens and vibrant the picture? & Gym: Write about your most memorable experience in yellows. Well, if they ever find it, that gym class. Read more at youngwritersproject.org. meaning hidden amongst the muted violet and pricks of bold scarlet, please, let me know. About the Project Thanks from YWP I stand near the painting, observing, Young Writers Project is an YWP is supported by the gen- sometimes making changes, perfecting independent nonprofit that engages erosity of foundations, businesses details. I attempt to add a carefully placed students to write, helps them improve and individuals who recognize the dot in one of the corners, leaning in and and connects them with authentic power and value of writing. squinting to make sure I get it just right. If you would like to contribute, audiences in newspapers, before live Just as the hairs of the brush touch the please go to youngwritersproject. canvas, my hand jerks to the left, leaving audiences and on web sites, young- a dark streak in place of my precise detail. writersproject.org, vpr.net, vtdigger. org, medium.com & cowbird.com. org/support, or mail your donation to YWP, 47 Maple St., Suite 106, YWPs Digital Mag I wince and step back, trying to take in the bigger picture, but my eye continues to be YWP also publishes The Voice, a digi- Burlington, VT 05401. Go to youngwritersproject.org drawn to individual areas, small details and tal magazine with YWPs best writ- to get your FREE subscription! ing, images and features. More info: Special thanks this week to patterns that make up the bigger canvas. Other artists surround me in this studio, youngwritersproject.org or contact Physicians Computer Co. working ferociously, paying no heed to my YWP at (802) 324-9537. own humble work in progress. They dip and mix and splash with such certainty and vigor, not noticing the drips and drops that Photo of the Week splatter from their manic waves of brushes onto my own piece. Sometimes their flung color works, an unexpected complement to my darker shades. But more often, the hues mix together to create a deep, ugly brown. Write about Calvin Ive considered setting up a boundary Coolidge and win cash! between our work spaces, but these oc- casional jewels that come from our palettes For VT Writers ages 13-19 mixing make me hesitate to do so. I know there will come a time when All the details: my lifes work will be moved to a gallery coolidgefoundation.org/blog/2016- or living room somewhere, to be looked at calvin-prize-for-vermont-youth fondly by those who come after. A legacy in a gilded frame to keep up on the wall; untouchable, removed. A time when the paint has all dried, when there will be no Middle school more additions, no more dabs of pigment Dodgeball, to perfect my masterpiece. Who can tell the game people either love or hate, now what the finished product will look where the small kids lose and get battered like? Will it match my sketches, my careful with balls planning? Or maybe it will take on a life and the athletic ones show off their throw- of its own, something I never could have Madi Cohen, Jericho ing hand, predicted with only a sheet of paper and the game where girls huddle up and squeal a pencil, a few daydreamed ambitions. Another perspective Interactive and run away as soon as a ball gets close to Theres a ways to go yet; I have a lot of them blank space to fill up with swirls and dots, and gossip about the dumbest things. precise details, careless stripes, radiant Theres something special about holding a Art is a delicate thing. If I were a piece of art, Id want you colors, and perfect, flawless, immaculate crisp, squishy ball, and throwing it as hard It can show your feelings through its many to look at me and think. Yeah thats it, just mistakes. as you can, mediums and textures, think. Think about love and life, some all of its colors and shadows. happy times and some sad ones, too. something liberating. - Tess LaLonde, South Burlington Funny I dont know what kind of art Id be. If I were a piece of art, Id want you to All I know is that Im on the other side of it, listen to the song and quiet your mind, just how a game so simple can almost capture watching my life just sort of ... happen, let it relax for a while. Dont think about the essence of middle school. Tag yourself watching the colors blend into each other getting mixed around and blurred, anything, let the silence float through your empty brain. Theres the pride in being the lucky fellow who catches the ball, who bathes in his watching each brush stroke come to life, If I were a piece of art, Id want you to brief ten seconds of glory and fame. We may flatter ourselves that we are each piece of glitter shimmering through touch me to understand my textures, my And the horrifying position of being the any one of many intriguing, individual those shadows that have been created. rough curves and my smooth edges, a liv- last one on your team, styles of art: landscape, splatter-paint, tes- Or maybe its shadows, ing contradiction. the whole class watching you and hoping sellation, pointillism, and fundamentally just many pencil strokes sprawled along Touch me so you know that each part you dont get hit. self-portraiture. the paper of me is different. So you learn to navigate The brief pain when you get hit on the side But none of us are freshly created, getting smudged every time a finger some- every crevice and crack of me. of your face, independent works, and to think we are is how finds its way there. If I were a piece of art, I wouldnt sit and you can taste the blood in the side of the highest vanity we, a superlatively vain Maybe its full of blacks and browns, still, I would move about in the world, your cheek. species, can indulge in. grays and whites, interacting with everyone. Id be that Its fun None of us would exist without other or maybe yellows and purples and pinks interactive exhibit where people can add because in the real world you cant throw people, and we have all been influenced or maybe ... there is nothing, their ideas, put a sticky note on the wall things at other people and my life is a blank canvas waiting to be with their thoughts, connect one string to a and laugh at them when they get hit. by thousands of people. We derive from drawn on or painted, million different pegs to show the different When the game stops everything goes back our culture, piecing together pieces of collaged or to be made into perspective. parts of themselves. to normal, other people and peoples to form our- but before that, its a jungle of hitting and All I really know is that Im on the other If I were a piece of art, I would repre- selves, something new. yelling and winning and losing. side, watching my life get created. sent the worlds people and how diverse, We are all collages. And its great. and beautiful you all are. - Anna Phelps, Wolcott - Sammy Leo, Huntington - Wren House, Essex - Anna Huener, Burlington