4th Annual – Artwork & Poetry Contest – 2022
Snow Leopard, Guardian of the High Mountains
WINNERS
Grand Prize Artwork
On the Watch
Artist – Pat Schwab
Medium: Pastels
First Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Old Blue Eyes
Artist – Dave Hills
Medium: Oils on Panel
Second Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Listening to the Voices of Ancestors
Artist – Ekaterina Drozhdina
Medium: Soft Pastels
Third Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Cautious Descent
Artist – Karla Mann
Medium: Oils
Fourth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
All in Your Stride
Artist – Sarah Stribbling
Medium: Pastels
Fifth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Spirit of the Snow
Artist – Samantha Greenhill
Medium: Pastels on Pastel Mat Board
Sixth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Tie
The Empire of Himalayas
Artist – Anju Panwar Rajesh
Media: Watercolors and Gouache
Once Upon A Time, Long Ago…
Artist – Debbie K. Morris
Medium: Pastels
Seventh Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Looking Forward
Artist – Sarah Stribbling
Medium: Oils
Eighth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Tie
Silence
Artist – Susanne Fumelli
Media: Pastels and Colored Pencils on Pastel Mat
Tashi
Artist – Kateryna Bielikova
Medium: Watercolors on Paper
Ninth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
The Guardian
Artist – Jody Call
Medium: Pastel Pencils
Tenth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
King of the Mountains
Artist – Birgit Bührlé
Medium: Acrylics on Canvas
First Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Guardian of the Heights
by Kathi Lehman
Guardian of the heights!
I feel your eyes upon me
As I stray from habited elevation
(Struggling meekly with acclimation) –
Please grant to me the passage rites
That I may see you in your habitation!
Spirit that dwells on eminent peaks!
I confess an affable kinship
For I, too, flourish in solitude –
And when gladly away from the multitude –
I find a wisdom that only speaks
At just such grandiose altitude!
Creature of mythic beauty!
Of noble face and piercing eyes –
Could you be from ether wrought?
From Shangri-La, snared and caught, –
Magically bound to a mammal disguise,
And to our sphere unfairly brought?
Predator ghost of highland mists!
Sovereign of the empyreal hunt!
Waiting unseen ‘gainst craggy steep
In perfect stillness, – then the leap!,
Bearing down with lethal brunt,
Upon an unsuspecting sheep!
Gatekeeper of the nebular realm!
Where the air, though thin, is laden
With an eerie silence o’er ridge and gap –
A blanket as thick as the snow on the cap
‘Til the silence is broken by a call to a maiden
Awakening her from her languorous nap
O tale as old as the mountains!
Ancient, intrinsic design!
A plea for a lover, a yearning, an urge –
To break from seclusion and willfully converge
In answer to nature’s call divine! –
He watches the maiden shyly emerge
O to be born among the clouds!
To draw breath at the summit!
The threshold between land and sky –
To grow and learn and one day die
And leave the land, but rising from it,
Land and sky unify!
First Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 12-17
King of the Mountains
Artist – Zaina Alam Piya
Media: Watercolors and Colored Pencils
Second Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 12-17
Snow Leopard
Artist – Devlini Denethmie Kudathanthirige
Medium: Watercolors
Third Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 12-17
Exploring the Territory
Artist – Susan
Medium: Watercolors
Second Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Precious Guardians
by Sandra McEwen
Up high they live and sleep
but roam lower, padding silently,
wending their ways smoothly
through snowy, rocky crags.
Invisible snow leopards
creep ever closer through mists
as prey graze oblivious
to their hidden, deadly stealth.
They bring balance to all around them
as they live and breathe the mountains,
precious guardians
of their most majestic homes.
Revered by many and hunted by some
snow leopards’ presence now commands respect
from those who share the grand valleys too.
They evoke feelings of awe and mystery
such beauty, such strength,
and inspire hearts to protect them
as they too are protectors.
First Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 11 & Under
Standing High Amidst the Surroundings
Artist – Kuhu Kacher
Media: Poster color, Sketch pen, & Brush pen
Third Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Before the Snow Sleeps
by Sarah Mills
If we had eyes of glacial green
Would we see the shifts they’ve seen?
The avalanche of man’s caprice
That goes in search of fur and fleece?
Would we blend as well as they
With bold rosettes of black and grey?
Or would our pelage of smoke and tar
Be the colors that clash and jar?
Would we keep balance on the steep incline
Humbly guarding the realms divine?
Or would our tales not hold our weight
On the pyramids and walls so great?
Would our beauty be hard to ignore
Like the snow that has no roar?
Or would we gaze in river and sea
Until drought puts paid to vanity?
And all we have are mirrors of glass
Where our reflection cannot pass,
Where only the ghost will look back and say
“You did not choose to walk my way.”
First Place – Digital Media
Youth Ages 12-17
Ghost of the Mountains
Artist – Zaina Alam Piya
Medium: Digital
Fourth Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Fierce Guardian
by Terry Pfister
Fierce guardian
panting under star-iced skies
paws padding along
the steep sharp shoulders of ancient rock,
Lord of this hostile kingdom
where prey is fleet and fearful,
Solitary hunter resting on secret ledges
under the stars
so vulnerable and so close to the heavens,
Dreaming as the soft velvet bullet that you are
shot hard and fast into the timeless river of blood and bone,
Sleeping, heart beating
to the whisper and wail of the mountain winds.
First Place – Combined Media
Adult – 18 & Over
Ice King
Artist – Joan Barbosa
Media: Ebru-type Paint Stains with Digital Editing
Fifth Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Chasing Forever
by Grisselle Chock
As the evening falls upon the cliffs,
the “ghost of the mountain” awakens.
Snowflakes glistening in the wind,
like their keen eyes, shine in amazement!
Slowly approaching, the chase begins…
Ready to leap, any moment!
Jumping and running with lightning speed,
trying to outsmart their opponent.
Crisscrossing the way with every step,
smartly mapping the mountain with hunger!
Learning the placement of every ledge,
jumping right, left, over and under.
They always roam above the clouds,
where not many humans would dare.
A lonely place where survival shrouds
a mad game of life or death.
Let’s give them room
to raise their young!
Let’s heal our home-planet together!
We can all learn to get along,
preserving Earth’s treasures… forever!
First Place – Unique Media
Adult 18 & Over
Waiting
Artist – Debi Lockhurst
Medium: Acrylics on Turkey Feathers
Second Place – Unique Media
Adult 18 & Over
Sleeping
Artist – Debi Lockhurst
Medium: Acrylics on Turkey Feathers
Sixth Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Editing the Poem
by Emma Lee
Snow conceals the landscape in a new page.
Antelope trot in a poetic line along a ridge.
As his breath-fog clears, a yak stands
bullish as a period. He snorts the air
into shape, punctuates the ground.
A falcon, riding a thermal, provides
an apostrophe. Hares bounce into commas.
Before the sun bleaches the poem,
an editor reads. Snow-balancing pads
fail to disturb the surface, but a red pen’s
precision, the flick of an erasing tail,
make words flow into breath-taking formation.
First Place – Unique Media
Youth 12-17
Sculpey
Artist – Susan
Medium: Clay
First Place – Poetry
Youth – Ages 11 & Under
Weave Your Dreams – Azure, the Snow Leopard
by Kuhu Kacher
Weave your dreams of
melodious tuning
Suddenly a strike of thunder
And everything vanishes
Though memories are preserved
In a vault of treasure
Still sunshine is so bright
Catching thy eye-sights
Azure the snow leopard
an abstract canvas
Thy love may disappear
The memories are still alive
Pepping as flash fiction
Reminiscing is the only option
That time is so lovely
It feels as eternity
All is nothing but imagination
Snow-flakes are dancing
on Azure in slow motion
Pairing
Adult 18 & over
First Place
Journey of the Snow Leopard
by Kitty Harvill
Haiku with Watercolors
Second Place
Melting Spirit
by Grisselle Chock
Poem with Ink and Watercolors
Pairing
Youth 12-17
First Place
Dawn in the Mountains
by Margarita Khrustaleva
Poem with Digital Artwork
