Announcing 2016 Chanukah Art Contest Winners

Little Things Lead to Art Contest Win

It’s all in the details for 10-year-old Ari Gordon, the overall winner of the AJT’s 2016 Chanukah Art Contest.

Using a mix of crayon, Sharpie and pencil, Ari crafted this year’s winning design: a meticulously drawn menorah for the Festival of Lights. It’s all about the process for Ari, who said he spent two hours on the piece and didn’t get up once from his chair until he was done.

“I wanted to do a menorah because I thought it would be the easiest to draw and I like menorahs,” the Sandy Springs resident said.

Fourth-grader Ari Gordon, 10, poses with his prize-winning Chanukah drawing.

A panel of AJT judges picked his drawing out of nearly 85 contest entries.

Ari, a fourth-grader at the Atlanta Jewish Academy, said his favorite parts of Chanukah are lighting the menorah, playing dreidel with his family and eating latkes. His hobbies besides art include soccer and drama.

He just finished playing the lead role of Roger in AJA’s production of “101 Dalmatians.”

Ari’s parents, Lynn and Brian, are proud of him for winning the art contest and especially for his attention to detail and patience while drawing the menorah.

“I think he was able to focus on drawing the menorah for those two hours because he enjoys it so much,” Brian said.

Added Lynn, “He’s a perfectionist.”

The chanukiah drawing is complete with shadows, shading, flames and even melted wax on the top of the candles.

Ari is already planning what he’s going to buy with his grand prize: a $50 gift card to Binders Art Supplies in Buckhead.

“I’ll probably buy some canvases, paint, and maybe a book that teaches you more about art and artists,” he said.

2016 AJT Chanukah Art Contest Grand Prize Winner

2016 Art Contest Age Group Winners and Runners-up

In addition to overall winner Ari Gordon, the Atlanta Jewish Times Chanukah Art Contest recognizes the best artwork submitted in each age group. This year, we have winners in the 6-and-under, 7-to-9 and 10-to-12 age groups, but because of a lack of entries, we do not have any prizes among 13- to 15-year-olds.

Art is, of course, subjective, and a different set of judges could have picked any of the age-group runners-up as winners.

Age-group Winners

Runners-up