Please excuse Daniel Rivera ’27 from class for a couple days this September: he has to be in Washington, D.C. to see one of his paintings honored at the Smithsonian Institution.
Seriously.
Rivera, who will enroll at Siena this fall as an Exploring Arts major, received word shortly before graduating from high school in June that a painting he created for art class won the Best in Show award in the annual Democracy Collection Student Art Competition, sponsored by the National Art Education Association and the Art in Embassies program of the U.S. State Department.
His work, titled “Tears of Miss Justice: Mourning a Broken System,” was inspired by what he perceives as a societal breakdown in communication over political issues.
“I think we’re all seeing a lot of friends and family with differing political views who are finding it hard to respect the other’s viewpoints,” he explained. “People who would normally be close are finding it hard to communicate because of these differences.”
His selected painting will be displayed at the Art in Embassies Art Activations for Democracy event on September 19, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Rivera’s artwork will also become a permanent part of the Democracy Collection within the Art in Embassies repository, from which U.S. ambassadors will have a chance to select it for display in their embassies around the globe.
His middle/high school art teacher Samantha Colbert of the Berlin Central School District (Cherry Plain, N.Y.) will accompany Rivera on his trip to Washington, where they will both be honored.
“Daniel has been a pleasure to teach since middle school,” said Colbert. “He was always respectful, inquisitive and hardworking. As an artist, being continually willing to learn and ask for feedback is why his skills have grown so much. We will miss him around our halls, but all of us teachers are looking forward to seeing him succeed at Siena in this next phase of life.”
Rivera’s art skills started developing during the COVID pandemic. He took up sketching and painting as a way to pass the time when the world was in lockdown, and is interested now in learning more about how to create digital art.
The Times Union and CBS6 reported on his national honor.
In his artist’s statement submitted with the entry, Rivera said he created “Tears of Miss Justice: Mourning a Broken System” to portray what he sees in our country.
“She represents the way I see many of us blind to the truth of how our two-party system causes pain and fights amongst citizens of America,” he wrote. “Her tears represent the citizens of America. The colors of her tears represent the two different political parties, while the presence of the tears symbolizes the sadness and pain our country faces when the parties fight, argue, and pit the people against each other. Miss Justice is set in an all-black background to make her the focal point, with shades of gray in her face representing a sense of dread and despair. Her blindfold, which the tears bleed through, represents the way I see many of us blind to the truth behind our system.”
Rivera said his future goals are fluid at this stage; he knows for sure though that he wants a career “devoted to helping others.”
“Maybe teaching, or something in the mental health field,” he said. “I’ll use my time at Siena to explore possibilities.”
