Adirondack Trust Company
Adirondack Trust Company

EARTH
FOYA

2023
"The Earth is what we all have in common."
-Wendell Berry
It's life-sustaining, awe-inspiring beauty is something that must be shared, revered, and protected, so that it may be honored for generations. These sentiments, and more, are represented in the compelling creations of these exceptional young artists.








2023 Festival Winner
Elliot Brownell
"Bits Bobs and Everything In-Between"
Johnstown Junior Senior High School, 10
ink, gouache, colored pencil
Artist Statement:
For this work I wanted to really focus on everything that makes nature and the earth really special to me. There are so many things that take my breath away everyday I go outside. From the dew on the grass to the stars in the night. The way storms roll in unannounced. How the sunlight that lets us see blinds our eyes. These things may not have any real purpose, and they don’t need to. They can exist and can be loved simply for existing. I think it’s simply incredible that I’m able to see and admire things that aren’t made to last. that I can love these things that are so meek in the grand scheme of things and give them meaning. Even if the frost in the early mornings is gone in a week, I’ll have known that it gave me joy, and isn’t that just wonderful?


2023 Performance
Art Winner
Iris Liu and April Zhang
"采薇 - Cai Wei"
Myers Ballet School, Grade 10

2023 Literary
Art Winner
Lauren Zhu
"Nomad's Lullaby"
Shaker High School, Grade 12
My dream home is a stained
glass arboretum, far away, under Greenland
midnight suns. Until a nightmare chases me
from my lonely room, across cold tile
to my mother’s bed, & I tuck my head
against her trembling chest.