Gretchen Bjornson received an unexpected email on Tuesday, May 2.
Bjornson, the art teacher at Newark St. Francis de Sales School, read that her eighth-grade student Nick Jungers had won the 2023 Hallow Student Easter Art Competition.
Bjornson had entered Jungers’ work in the competition hosted by Hallow, a Catholic meditation and prayer app. The app offers daily morning and evening prayers, and it includes the rosary, chaplets, novenas and Scripture readings.
Its website says Hallow, which is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play, is the No. 1 prayer app in the world.
“I opened my email at the end of the day and read the news from the Hallow team,” Bjornson said. “In bold letters, the headline of the email read, ‘Your student has won the Hallow Art Competition!’”
Bjornson had assigned an “Image of Christ” project to her eighth-grade students. The students could use a variety of mediums, she said, including acrylic paint, pencil, colored pencils and watercolors.
“After presenting various images of Jesus in different art forms and techniques, I asked the students to choose an image of Jesus that spoke to them,” Bjornson said. “They had to come up with several ideas in their sketchbook and settle on one.
“They could choose any medium to create their piece of art. The students had four, 40-minute class periods to work on their art.”
Bjornson selected a few of her students’ art pieces for the competition.
The Hallow Community Partnership Team said they received submissions from across the globe, including from Canada, the United Kingdom and cities across the United States.
The winning artwork was divided into three categories: littles (grades K-5), middles (grades 6-8) and teens (grades 9-12). A winner was chosen for each category.
Jungers’ piece won the middles category. He said his portrait of Christ showed “Jesus in deep prayer with the Father.”
“Nick’s piece demonstrated a strong understanding of perspective and captured the humanity of Jesus in a way that technically impressed us,” the Hallow Design Team said.
Jungers’ portrait was featured in the “Kids” section of the Hallow app for May. The “Kids” section is included in “Meditate,” which offers a variety of prayers. The winners of the littles category and the teens category are also featured there.
“The Hallow design team evaluated each submission on a combination of compositional quality, technical skill in the chosen medium and the emotional connection created in alignment with Hallow’s mission of helping the world to pray,” the Hallow Design Team said.
Each category also received an honorable mention. Emma Phillips, an eighth-grader at St. Francis de Sales School, received an honorable mention in the middles category for her art piece, which Bjornson had submitted to Hallow.
“Each piece was unique,” Bjornson said of her students’ artwork. “It was interesting to see how they portrayed Jesus in their own personal art and what medium they chose to use. There were some very moving pieces. I wasn’t surprised when I saw Nick’s name (announced as the winner).
“He is very patient and thoughtful with all his art. He always has been since I’ve had him as a student. He is detailed and is a master of his craft. You can tell he puts his heart and soul into every piece he creates.”
The goal of the competition was to stimulate a passion for creating beauty. It provided an opportunity to showcase students’ inspiring contributions to God’s kingdom to the more than 10 million people who engage on Hallow, the Hallow Community Partnership Team said.
Bjornson said it was “divine intervention” that led her to submit her students’ work.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know there was an art competition going on, even though I use the app every day during class time and in the evening for personal prayer and meditation,” she said. “Angel Schneider, our director of communications (at St. Francis de Sales parish), had forwarded the information to me on April 21.
“Normally I don’t have time to do contests, yet this seemed like divine intervention. The students had just finished this assignment. I had a week to choose a few pieces and submit them to Hallow.”
The Hallow Community Partnership Team said the competition allowed students to share their talents with others for the glory of God.
That ties in well to the Classical Catholic Education model implemented at St. Francis de Sales School, Bjornson said. The model forms a child to understand his- or herself, the world around them and to respond to the voice of God, Who created them and calls them to Himself. The purpose of a child’s life, or their humanity, is the foundation of the child’s education.
“There are so many different ways this (art project) lends itself to deeper thinking,” Bjornson said. “How do we know what Christ looks like? What are some similarities between the many images of Christ?
“In the art room, the transition to Classical Catholic Education has challenged me to not only dig deeper into my existing lessons and find those connections to our faith, but to build my own unique lessons that lend themselves to all that is true, good and beautiful. It really has been an eye-opening journey for me and my students.”
The Hallow Community Partnership Team said the unity of that which is true, good and beautiful is what the Catholic faith is all about. Hallow, the team said, aims to present beauty, in its many creative forms, as a core principle of their ministry, to inspire others to search for the good and the true.
“When I look at Nick’s image of Christ, I see peace and love,” Bjornson said. “Isn’t that what we all need more of in this world? This honor is well deserved.”