Award in Excellence Ashley Youkilis

Wonder © Ashley Youkilis Glendale, Ohio $1,000 Age 17

Wonder, b/w photograph (8" x 10") "My creative process is able to process without my learning disability interrupting it. Dealing with a learning disability all my life, I have always been cast lower than others, pitied, or done worse than my peers. But in art, I can compete on an equal playing field and excel past those who can read better or faster or even spell all their words correctly." Ashley Youkilis enjoys showing the soul of her subjects through photography. She comments, "I feel through my black and white photographs, the viewer can see into the soul of the picture and indirectly into my soul." Ashley's goal is to be a fashion photographer someday. "Art is a large part of my life. It enters into almost every decision I make; composition, sensitivity, creative thinking all factor into all my classes and they are all skills I have learned in art." Ashley will be starting her senior year at Wyoming High School in Ohio.