A Coeur d'Alene High School student made an impressive showing at the University of Idaho's 24th annual High School Art Exhibition.

Sydney Croteau, a senior, was a second-place winner in the juried competition that each year attracts more than 150 student artists from 25-30 high schools from throughout Idaho.

This year's theme was "Human Rights Aesthetic," and Croteau's dry pastel and colored pencil illustration "Out of Line" earned her a $150 gift certificate.

Croteau said she created the illustration for her Advanced Placement art class.

"My concentration is for 'irrational fears,'" she said. "Originally that piece was supposed to be the fear of conformity."

The piece depicts a stage with robots hanging from strings - puppet-like and lifeless - in a single line, facing a standing robot using scissors to cut the strings.

Croteau said her CHS art teacher, Terri Leonard, said the illustration would work as a submission to the University of Idaho competition.

The piece now has two meanings for Croteau.

It still represents the fear of conformity, she said, but from a "Human Rights Aesthetic" perspective, Croteau said it is meant to challenge students to "own their own futures," to control their own destinies.

After graduation from CHS, she plans to attend North Idaho College for two years to earn an Associate of Science degree. She will then transfer those credits to a four-year college for a bachelor's degree in nutrition. Her goal is to be a registered dietician.

But she's not giving up her creative endeavors.

"I want to do my art on the side," Croteau said, adding she hopes to be able to show her work and sell it.

Nadine Albano, a student from Mountain View High School in Meridian won first place. The top prize was a $1,000 University of Idaho Scholarship and a $150 gift certificate.

Several students from other Kootenai County schools received honorable mentions.

The exhibition will be held through March 6 in the Ridenbaugh Gallery on the first floor of Ridenbaugh Hall on the University of Idaho campus, 601 Campus Drive, Moscow.

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