A TALENTED young sculptor from Verona has won the youth award at Lake Light Sculpture in Jindabyne.
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Fourteen-year-old Portia Terlich, who calls the Bega Valley home but attends school in Jindabyne, won the award with her creation “Sticks and Stones”.
The three words she used to describe it are strength, hope and survival.
In her sculpture an eagle flies above a pile of bones and stones.
“It’s representing flying away from all the problems,” Portia said.
“It was kind of a bullying statement, and how I got through that journey.
“It was showing people that this had happened to me.”
“Sticks and Stones” is made from cow bones, stones, wood, steel and tin – all of which were found on her family’s farm in Verona aside from the stones which came from Brogo River.
“She just wandered through [the farm] and thought, ‘I can use that, I can use that’…” her proud mother Jo Terlich said.
On the bones Portia used a wood burner to write “names will never hurt me”, a part of the sculpture that the judges made special mention of.
By creating it she learned the skills of using a plasma cutter, angle grinder, drill, wood burner and drill press.
She started working on her sculpture in January and, as she is only in the Valley on weekends, completed it on the day of Lake Light.
Portia said she didn’t expect to win the youth award at all.
“Her reaction was just fabulous, people were talking about it for days at the festival,” Ms Terlich said.
“She didn’t enter it for the competition part of [Lake Light].
“It definitely held its own amongst all the other sculptures, once it was all set up.”
Long-time Lake Light committee member Jan Owens congratulated Portia on her win.
“Congratulations Portia, the judges thought that you have created a sculpture that does exactly what it sets out to do,” Ms Owens said.
“Though the successful integration of welded steel and incised bones, ‘Sticks and Stones’ speaks about social issues that affect all of us and sends a message of strength, hope and survival.”
While “Sticks and Stones” will now go into her mother’s garden, Portia has already been making plans for another farm-based sculpture.
Portia wanted to thank David Cole and Barbara Reeves for their support and use of their workshop in Wolumla to create her sculpture.