43
Canfield High grad receives art award
Photo
Nikki Mehle, a Canfield High School graduate and a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art, has won a prestigious award for her painting “Dinner Time,” which is shown here in the background.
By Elise Franco
Canfield
Nikki Mehle knew before she entered grade school that she wanted to paint, and her determination to become an artist has never wavered.
Mehle, whose painting “Dinner Time” was displayed at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s 66th annual Student Independent Exhibition, said she was floored when she won the President Grafton J. Nunes Award for her piece.
The exhibit began Feb. 17 and runs through Saturday.
Mehle, a student at CIA and 2010 Canfield High School graduate, said being chosen to show her work there was an honor in itself. Winning the award was something she never expected.
“I’m so honored to just have my work in that room with many other talented CIA students,” she said. “I was unaware that awards were even given, so to hear my name, I can’t even describe it. I was very surprised.”
“Dinner Time” is a large-scale oil painting that Mehle, 20, described as an examination of patriarchy within families.
“I was interested in how a woman acquires many of the household duties,” she said. “I can see it in my family and in many families.”
The painting depicts two women serving food and wine to a man, who is sitting between them.
Mehle’s father, Dr. Anthony Mehle, said the man in the painting is based on himself.
“I’ve gotten teased about that one,” he said.
Anthony Mehle said “Dinner Time” is just one piece in an accomplished body of his daughter’s work.
“It’s a really privilege to be a first-hand witness to her talent. It amazes me what she’s able to do,” he said. “Her first love has always been art.”
Mehle said she’s known since she was young that she would purse art as a career, though it hasn’t always been easy.
“Of course being a fine artist, people say it’s so hard to make it, and many times I thought I should maybe get a degree on the side teaching,” she said. “When things like this happen, I am sure that this is what I really should be doing.”
Anthony Mehle said he and his wife, Irene, enrolled their daughter in art lessons when she was in kindergarten.
“Ever since we saw she could hold a crayon, she’s impressed us with her skill and creativity,” he said. “We were really impressed by how her teacher [Kathy Young] brought out her talents.”
Young, who teaches at Music Lessons for Us All in Poland, said Mehle’s work ethic and ability to absorb criticism helped hone her skill.
“She has progressed so far since first coming to me,” Young said. “Her work keeps getting better and better. ... She has such a future ahead of her.”
Young said she knew Mehle could make it as a professional artist after she was able to work through a case of artist’s block during high school.
“She went through it around her junior year, and she was so shocked that everything just stopped,” she said. “But she worked through it, and that’s how I know she’s going to be able to do this.
“I think that was probably one of the best things that’s ever happened to her.”
Mehle said she credits Young and Kevin Hoopes, art teacher at Canfield High School, for pushing her throughout her adolescent years.
“[Young] continually helped me work my hardest and remain serious,” she said. “...[Hoopes] pushed me to make a lot of work. That’s important to me because I remember now to always keep making work.”
Hoopes said Mehle was his student during her freshman year of high school and again during her senior year.
He said from the start he could tell Mehle was different than most art students.
“Immediately, I could tell she was very talented,” he said. “But she was also a hard worker and motivated, and that combination is the key to success.”
Mehle said a large support system, from her parents to her educators, that kept her moving forward.
“I was encouraged to apply to art schools, and that’s when I realized I wanted to pursue art fully,” she said. “Right now I am just becoming inspired by things around me and making my work one piece at a time.”