Students at Portola Elementary last week participated in PTA Reflections, a national arts recognition program. Through the Portola PTA 54 students submitted 63 original creative works inspired by the Reflections program theme, "Together We Can." Works included entries in the areas of literature, photography and the visual arts.

This is the first year that Portola has been a part of the program.

Artist workshops were held before the event and entries were judged blindly. Works received scores based on the following criteria: interpretation of theme, artistic merit/creativity and mastery of the medium.  

First place winning entries (shown below) will be delivered to the District 17 PTA for the next level of judging against all other winning entries throughout San Mateo County. Winners from the District 17 competition will compete with entries from around the State and have potential to move on to the national judging in Washington, D.C .

Reflections artworks are on display in the school's library until Thursday. Contest entries can also be viewed at Portola Elementary's online gallery at www.artsonia.com. In recognition of their creative efforts, all Portola students who submitted an entry in the contest received either an award or a participation ribbon.

The judges were: Surrey Blackburn (children's author, Bay Area photographer), San Bruno Patch Editor Martin Ricard, Carolyn Livengood (columnist, San Mateo County Times), Janet Arline Barker (fine art painter, illustrator, San Bruno Patch columnist), Franco Franchini (fine artist, teacher), Melvin Phillips (San Bruno Lions Club).

The Reflections art contest coordinators were: Amanda Heathcote (Portola PTA president), Jesai Bancroft-Connors, Noreen Flynn, Kristie Postel, Gabriele Schroeder, Joel Bancroft-Connors, Sarah Romeyn, Jean Cayaban, Pamela Gamble, Charles Rohrbach (Portola principal).