Columbus Monthly / May 2012 / Super Students: Zach Wilke

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Super Students: Zach Wilke

The Artist

There’s so much intricacy, such detail and power in the mixed media works of Zach Wilke, 18, it takes several minutes of careful examination to fully appreciate their scope.

It’s art that’s getting noticed and winning awards.

The Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition has chosen his mixed media entry, “Dependance,” a series of three photographs that are drawn on with pen and ink, as one of the 300 pieces to be honored at the James A. Rhodes State Office Tower through May 17. His video, “Nocturnal,” which utilizes stop-frame photos, was honored at the exhibition’s regional level.

And Wilke was one of six Central Ohio students to win the Regional Silver Key from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. His portfolio of eight mixed media pieces with the theme “Growth/Change” took a full four months to complete as part of the senior portfolio class taught by Dan Gerdeman at Hilliard Davidson High School. “They’ve got an abstract quality,” Wilke notes, “that leaves them open to interpretation.”

His creative process for the portfolio pieces began with images he shot on film. In the darkroom, Wilke layered two negative strips and printed them together. He then used black and white acrylic paint to create images—trees, vines, roots and waterfalls—on the surface, making it nearly impossible to tell where the film image ends and his painting begins.

Last year, two prestigious requests were made of Hilliard Davidson’s art department, and Wilke’s work was chosen both times. The Columbus Museum of Art featured student art in Bound, its three-month exhibition in the community gallery; two of Wilke’s pen and ink drawings were on display. Then the White House tapped the school to design the 26 ornaments needed for the outdoor Ohio Christmas tree—one of them was Wilke’s creation. “We did an out-and-back class trip to D.C. once the tree was up,” Wilke says. “An exhausting day, but very exciting.”

Like many successful art students, Wilke has been drawing for as long as he can remember. “I don’t know where he gets it,” says his mom, Lisa, an account director at BCD Travel. Not from his dad, either, she notes—Mike’s an accountant at Honda. But five years of Saturday morning art classes at CCAD, starting in fourth grade, helped

Three years of Thad Ricker’s photography classes at Hilliard Davidson have been pivotal. Wilke has experimented with landscape photography, Photoshop portraits and, lately, light painting. He explains, “I use a digital camera, tripod and a long exposure setting at night. Then I paint images with a flashlight or a string of Christmas lights. It’s cool.”

After working as a lifeguard at a pool this summer, Wilke will focus on photography and graphic design at an art college in the fall. CCAD, University of Cincinnati and Chicago’s Columbia College are top choices.

Gerdeman, who’s instructed Wilke in drawing, notes, “Zach’s applied his classroom knowledge in original directions, in exemplary fashion. He’s fused photography and drawing like a professional artist—you just don’t see that in high school. He’s got guts and charisma.”