“Obsession, Disintegration and Reinvention”
Initiated in 1985, this annual juried art exhibition presents work by Hillsborough middle and high school students that explores ideas and visions similar to those of Salvador Dalí and the surrealists. This year’s theme is “Obsession, Disintegration and Reinvention.”
Salvador Dalí underwent key transformative stages throughout his life, encompassing periods of obsession, disintegration and reinvention, all reflected in his artistic style, techniques and self-expression. With these broad themes, The Dali Museum invites students to explore one or more of these concepts in their own artwork.
Dalí was renowned for his obsessions, ranging from his Catalan landscapes to Millet’s painting The Angelus to his wife, Gala. These obsessions pervade his art and writings, with some persisting throughout his life. Dalí’s obsessions fueled his creative genius. Obsession invites students to reflect on and visually explore their key fixations.
Following the dropping of the atomic bomb, Dalí became fascinated with the concept of disintegration. Disintegration implies the fragmentation of a subject, which Dalí represented visually through dissolution and pixelation. The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) is a reinterpretation of his celebrated 1931 work The Persistence of Memory. He literally shatters his original composition, indicating how the world had changed. Disintegration challenges students to explore how an object or concept can be decomposed visually.
Reinvention is at the core of Dalí’s persona and art. Fleeing Europe during World War II, Dalí reinvented himself to appeal to the American public. Turning his back on modern art, he drew inspiration from the Renaissance and Catholicism, and he rebranded himself through his iconic symbols like his mustache and melting clocks. Reinvention invites students to reflect on how change can be expressed visually, whether relating to their personal identity or the essence of their subject.
The Student Surrealist Art Exhibitions and receptions are funded by a generous gift from anonymous donors and in part from a program endowment fund established by the Craig and Jan Sher Philanthropic Fund, with further support from Museum Docent Steven Lawson and Nancy Hewitt. Additional support for this educational program comes from our Museum corporate partner, Bloomin’ Brands Inc.
Middle School
Alphabetical order by school
(Click images to enlarge)
Elena Ceballos
The diligent reptile and the detached pit
Acrylic, Colored Pencil
Bell Creek Academy
Art Teacher: Richard Runas
Grade 8
The gecko is a victim of not being able to express its opinions to the snakes who taunt it. The scissors are metaphorical. When you get taunted or judged for your opinions, you feel as if you’ve lost your ability to express who you are. Liars are said to get their tongues cut off for lying, but getting your opinion invalidated because nobody believes in you or has no faith in you has a similar feeling.
Sophia Mai Odparlik
Attrition
Mixed Media
Bell Creek Academy
Art Teacher: Richard Runas
Grade 7
“Attrition” is the act of weakening or exhausting by constant abuse or attack. However, it can also mean the sorrow for one’s sins that arises from a motive other than the love of God. My piece shows obsession and how it causes disintegration. The man’s body is disintegrating, as a result of his harmful obsession, as implied by the black rose with thorns in the back. I used levitation and symbolism.
Riggs Pierce
Gumbo They’re Watching You
Mixed Media
Bell Creek Academy
Art Teacher: Richard Runas
Grade 7
My piece depicts a monster sitting on a recliner chair and drinking out of a can. I had a dream that inspired me to make this piece. In the dream it was a much scarier version of what you see in the picture. Since he terrorized me in the dream I thought it would be funny to make him in a semi-normal situation. I also like drawing guys with sharp teeth, but making them non-menacing.
Param Sandhu
The Taste of Death
Colored Pencil, Graphite, Ink
Bell Creek Academy
Art Teacher: Richard Runas
Grade 8
This art piece was created from the idea of smoking, and how junk and nicotine can be extremely deadly to the human body. At first, I thought of the ideas of obsession, disintegration, and reinvention and how I could combine them into one piece. My artwork represents the harm of smoking and its addiction (obsession) by comparing it to a skull which represents disintegration, as well as the idea of quitting smoking to those who are addicted (reinvention).
London Byrd
Flowering Freedom
Mixed Media
Buchanan Middle School
Art Teacher: Carla Wilkins
Grade 8
Spain Byrd
Daycare in Decay, Still Play
Mixed Media
Buchanan Middle School
Art Teacher: Carla Wilkins
Grade 7
Dalia Drucker
Untitled
Graphite
Farnell Middle School
Art Teacher: Sonya Whipple
Grade 8
My art work is a piece that has a man hidden behind vines and branches crying, it has a sad or depressing mood to it. I used graphite to complete my work and my goal for it was to create something that showed lots of emotion, when doing this I was able to improve my art skills and get better at my shading as well as lights and darks.
Violeta Montufar-Gomez
Weeping Earth Mother
Collage, Construction Paper
Marshall Middle School
Art Teacher: John Summitt
Grade 8
I created this art piece to represent the earth and how the people on earth are destroying it, hence making Mother Earth cry. I used a bunch of colors to show the color in life and make the art piece more alive while going for an abstract look.
Saliyah Walker
Personality Traits
Collage
Marshall Middle School
Art Teacher: John Summit
Grade 7
I did this because it is very colorful and doesn’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to stress about all my lines being straight, or having my paper be in place perfectly. I think represents my personality.
Priya Henderson
Uncharted Waters
Mixed Media
Martinez Middle School
Art Teacher: Kassandra Cochran
Grade 8
Only about 20% of the ocean is discovered. That giant unknown aspect makes me both drawn to and afraid of it. I made the divers look eerie to represent my fear of the ocean but had them disintegrate and reconstruct into the creatures I find most interesting and beautiful, the jellyfish, just as I try to take my fearfulness and transition it into more tranquil things to reassure myself that the unknown doesn’t always have to be unsettling and grave.
Camille Wang
Belonging
Mixed Media
Martinez Middle School
Art Teacher: Kassandra Cochran
Grade 8
This piece of a moth on a light symbolizes the phrase “Moth to a flame,” representing the tension between attraction and danger. The moth’s yearning for something greater reflects the fragility of desire and obsession. The eyes on its wings associate to societal pressure and the burden of expectations, showing how one might lose their sense of self while behold the eyes of society. Basically reinventing a standard based off social status, highlighting the struggle to belong in society.
Jemma Valentin
Untitled
Colored Pencil
Mulrennan Middle School
Art Teacher: Holly Gaw
Grade 8
The artwork represents how relaxation can sometimes be not as comforting as people can make it out to be. The person in this piece is quite literally falling apart and feels like they should be doing something represented by all the eyes and the eyes melting. The fallen pieces are regenerating new life from their wounds shown by the new growth of plants.
Mya Douglas
Missing Pieces of Grief
Marker
Orange Grove Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Hilda Muinos
Grade 7
Giulia Jimenez
Should Have Been Watching
Mixed Media
Orange Grove Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Hilda Muinos
Grade 8
Tsion Waters
Human Soup
Mixed Media
Orange Grove Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Hilda Muinos
Grade 8
Zoe Barghoudian
Smitten
Colored Pencil
Progress Village Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Julianne Gonzalez
Grade 8
“Smitten”, is my take on the theme “Obsession, Disintegration and Reinvention”. The wedding theme along with the watchful eyes show an obsession, a longing and a breathless wait. In a marriage, you give to your other, your body, your time, and your mind. You have to change who you are. The disintegration of the old is necessary to make room for the new. You reinvent yourselves into one. When you confess love to someone you must “pour your heart out” to them.
Hayden Cleary
Wolf Rages at The Distant Forget-Me-Nots
Digital
Progress Village Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Julianne Gonzalez
Grade 7
The character has an exposed melting brain that represents the disintegration of memories. The forget-me-nots show he wants to cling to his memories, obsession. The wolf behind him with no eyes, represents a friend that was close to him. He appears to be glitched out, showing the character struggles to remember his appearance clearly. The forget-me-nots have bloomed recently, reinvention. I created this artwork digitally and tried to express feelings of emptiness and interest.
Scarlett Jane Gonzalez
Reincarnation
Mixed Media
Progress Village Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Erika Schnur
Grade 6
“Reincarnation,” a mixed media piece, uses watercolor washes, colored pencils, and markers in a surreal style like Dali. Combining strange creatures, it explores my obsessions and levitation. The bottom half represents my Capricorn obsession, and the top is about how my mom thought I was going to be a boy. Spiky angel wings reference Jesus’ crucifixion. Peeling skin symbolizes transformation, while my face looks up towards the light from God and the galaxy, which is my way of showing hope.
Jayvyn Miller
Flying Flowers
Graphite
Progress Village Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Erika Schnur
Grade 8
I was inspired to make my artwork through a sketch idea in art class. We were told to create a surrealist drawing using flowers, bird wings, and hands. I was also inspired by the interesting settings Salvador Dali used in his artworks when creating the sketch for my drawing. I was pretty happy with the idea of my sketch, so I included many aspects of it in my final piece. I tried to incorporate levitation in my sketch through the floating/flying flowers and a dreamlike setting through the idea.
Brody Munoz
Hold Together, Destroy, Repeat
Colored Pencil
Progress Village Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Julianne Gonzalez
Grade 8
Obsession, Disintegration and Reinvention; Obsession: the amount of snake birds scattered throughout the piece, disintegration: the world collapsing next to the snake bird and the snake bird melting from pressure. Reinvention is shown through the snake birds that form a rainbow, and the wings melting into the field of flowers. I want you to look around, what do you see?
Declan NeSmith
The Disintegration of The Dinner Party
Colored Pencil
Progress Village Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Julianne Gonzalez
Grade 7
“The Disintegration of the Dinner Party,” is a surreal landscape depicting a cow in a frying pan. I thought of things I am obsessed with in life like cooking videos featuring steak. Obsession can have an unhealthy connotation. The food in my piece represents how unhealthy being obsessed with something could be. The cow appears to be falling apart. I created a disintegration of reality with oversized objects and floating objects. I included the reinvention of a dinner party.
Iliana Rivera
The Butterfly Effect
Mixed Media
Progress Village Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Erika Schnur
Grade 7
Carmen McRae
My Own Demise
Colored Pencil, Watercolor
Rampello K-8 Downtown Partnership Magnet School
Art Teacher: Elizabeth Van Allen
Grade 8
My piece uses symbolism to show how our minds can cause our disintegration. I used metamorphosis in her hair, becoming snakes wrapping tightly around her. This represents the things that can happen in our mind without our control, involuntarily destroying us. However, she put herself in the position of standing on the ice, now cracking, representing how detrimental our choices can be. The abyss is swallowing her up, like how our thoughts can overwhelm us.
Violet Saladino
The Monster Within
Colored Pencil
Rampello K-8 Downtown Partnership Magnet School
Art Teacher: Elizabeth Van Allen
Grade 8
This piece reveals how one can benefit from failure or death. The night sky portrays darkness in both lives. The victim possesses no legs because it cannot escape fate. In the background, the tree is the victim’s hope. The saliva creates a river of hunger. Reinvention and disintegration are conveyed by the person’s transformation into a nightmarish beast. Obsession is riddled throughout with the presence of skeletons.
Bryan Starks
New Outcome
Marker, Colored Pencil
Rampello K-8 Downtown Partnership Magnet School
Art Teacher: Elizabeth Van Allen
Grade 7
This piece is titled New Outcome because it is going through change. It shows how when something is broken, it could be turned into something new. The shattered glass and neon are used to show disintegration and reinvention. The repetition of the “planets” represents how things are broken down and changed over and over again.
Catherine Deagle
Reinvention of the Height
Mixed Media
Roland Park K-8 Magnet School
Art Teacher: Salenna Nguyen
Grade 7
I was inspired by Dali’s works that include ants and spiders. I noticed he used dislocation with them, so I did the same with my piece by shrinking a human down into a spider’s environment. I combined Dali’s themes, Lewis Carroll’s illustration style, and my personal style of blending colors to create my own surrealistic wonderland.
Isabella McNulty
Repainted
Mixed Media
Roland Park K-8 Magnet School
Art Teacher: Salenna Nguyen
Grade 8
For this piece, I was inspired by a book, in which the people around the main character were trying to turn her into one race or the other, instead of appreciating her for her own self and not focusing on the color of her skin. I channeled this feeling of being remade by the world around you into this piece, taking it another step and quite literally making the people paint her one color or the other.
Daria McLaughlin
Time Is Fragile
Mixed Media
Tampa Preparatory School
Art Teacher: Martha DeAmbrose
Grade 8
My art piece, Time is Fragile, is a mix of the themes Obsessions, Reinvention, and Disintegration. The main idea came from the concept that time is incredibly valuable and constantly moving, no matter what. The eyes represent the idea that each person exists within their own timeline and perceives the world differently from others. Each eye holds a different emotion based on individual experiences, emphasizing how valuable each moment of life is.
Kamyla Ospino
Praise The Lamb
Oil
Walker Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Lisa Hellman
Grade 7
This piece was mainly based on people I’ve personally met in my life. At first glance, they look innocent, pure, and proper in a way, something we strive to be, but on the inside, they are quite the opposite, and aren’t we all? Some of us are willing to change for the better, but at what cost? Will all this praise make us for the better or worse?
Valentina Puentes
Finally, I Can Breathe
Watercolor, Acrylic
Webb Middle School
Art Teacher: Nestor Caparros Martin
Grade 8
This person who was so trapped and obsessed with being “normal” but one day manages to let go of all his imagination, and his soul begins to take shape. That is why he cries for the happiness and tranquility of being able to be himself.
Diosely Lopez Sanchez
Untitled (Sea)
Mixed Media
Webb Middle School
Art Teacher: Nestor Capaross Martin
Grade 8
This artwork explores mental struggles and self-discovery. The stairs and ocean represent the path to understanding oneself, while the water symbolizes deep emotions. The heart shows how the person follows their feelings rather than logic, and the eye expresses the pain of this emotional journey. The distorted faces reflect inner battles, and the disintegrating figure symbolizes the fragility of the soul in the search for identity. The ocean represents the vastness of emotions.
Camron Imbeault
Oppositional Directive
Colored Pencil, Graphite
Williams Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Gregory Vondruska
Grade 7
My artwork features two hilly landscapes that are perfectly symmetrical, forming a line of symmetry in the middle. Inspired by a childhood drawing, I aimed to bring it to life using vibrant colors, textures, and a variety of shades while moving away from the original black and white contrast. With these elements, the piece transformed into a dreamlike composition with a fantastical, colorful twist.
Norah Paul
The Yellow Crawling Menace
Marker, Pen, Colored Pencil
Williams IB Middle Magnet School
Art Teacher: Gregory Vondruska
Grade 6
With my artwork, I created a monster to show what true human nature can be like. I made the monster using pen, markers, and colored pencils. My piece uses line and color to show movement. The main idea behind my art is that people can be greedy and want to be something that they are not, showing the true monster within them.
Jose Monroy-Estrada
Absolute Eggolution
Mixed Media
York Innovation Academy K-8
Art Teacher: William Talenti
Grade 8
Breonna Ratcliff
Myself, My Cellphone
Mixed Media
York Innovation Academy K-8
Art Teacher: William Talenti
Grade 7
Naomi Syrus
Life’s too Short to Not Dream
Mixed Media
York Innovation Academy K-8
Art Teacher: William Talenti
Grade 7
High School
Alphabetical order by school
Lara Cirino
Bubbles
Acrylic
Alonso High School
Art Teacher: Shane Heath
Grade 10
This artwork conveys the intensity of emotional turmoil and inner conflict. The melting red face, contrasted with the cool blue tears and flames, represents the struggle between anger, sadness, and release. The surreal elements illustrate a mind overwhelmed by its own emotions, visually translating the chaos of internal suffering. Through bold colors and expressive forms, this piece invites the viewer to reflect on the complexity of human emotions and mental states.
Sofia Gonzalez
Lo Perfecta On Me
Mixed Media
Alonso High School
Art Teacher: Shane Heath
Grade 11
Daira Pego
Cruel Timelessness
Mixed Media
Alonso High School
Art Teacher: Vanessa Smith
Grade 12
Dario Perez
A Look At The Horizon
Acrylic
Alonso High School
Art Teacher: Vanessa Smith
Grade 9
This piece contrasts a corrupt society with an ideal future. The vanishing landscape uncovers the dormant bear, which, compared to the industrious yet vulnerable ants on the surface, faces fewer challenges despite possessing strength. Meanwhile, the man by the beach embodies the idea of a visionary future, harnessing the sea’s power and revealing its many mysteries under the watchful gaze of an eye beholding a future within sight.
Jared Rivera
Blown Away
Digital
Alonso High School
Art Teacher: Vanessa Smith
Grade 12
Blown Away is a surreal implication of identity, illusion, and detachment. Inspired by Dali’s dreamlike distortions of the human body, it displays a headless figure holding a balloon-like head, questioning the authenticity and concealments in a world full of facades. Set in an eerie landscape, it embodies the reality between self-perception and the space where a mind can float freely.
Kendall Smith
Spiraling
Watercolor
Alonso High School
Art Teacher: Cristina Shaw
Grade 11
Spiraling depicts an obsession with time. The spirals are indicative of being overwhelmed or bombarded by the stressors of time such as deadlines or simply fitting everything one wants in life. The clock (hands) in the eye is a motif in my pieces this year. Here it shows a hyperfixation on time. I specifically chose to use watercolor so the colors could be seen through each layer of the piece to tie all aspects together.
Gregor Bornowski
I Depend On You
Mixed Media
Armwood High School
Art Teacher: Morgan Guinessey
Grade 12
These are two of my characters who are married. The embroidered and burn parts are supposed to represent scarring and the fading memory, respectively. There’s quite a lot I could personally say about the meaning of the piece or the symbolism of it all—but I would end up writing a novel.
Elisa Forbicioni
Phoenix Rising
Colored Pencil
Armwood High School
Art Teacher: Emma Lettera
Grade 11
It shows a woman being burnt while a phoenix forms out of the flames. It’s part of a cult that a tribe constantly does because of their obsession with the riches that they’re rewarded.
Aaliyah Green
Metamorphosis
Colored Pencil
Armwood High School
Art Teacher: Emma Lettera
Grade 10
My artwork displays all 3 theme topics: The pills show obsession. Disintegration in my eyes is similar to destruction and is shown by the broken mirror. Lastly, Reinvention is shown with butterflies, like metamorphosis. The artwork is meant to demonstrate you can grow from the bad. I showed this by having the butterflies come from the pills and broken mirror; new life comes from destruction.
Kaitlynn Shields
Stress Blossoms
Colored Pencil
Armwood High School
Art Teacher: Emma Lettera
Grade 9
In this drawing, I wanted to capture the feeling that positive stress, even though it’s meant to push you, sometimes it begins to pull you under. By juxtaposing oversized blue flowers with human features, I highlight how external pressures and expectations can be overwhelming. Like surrealist artists Salvador Dalí, I employ distortion and dream imagery to symbolize how stress, while a motivator, feels like it’s consuming everything.
Marianne Custudio
Heart’s Awakening
Acrylic
Bell Creek Academy
Art Teacher: Charles Cawley
Grade 12
The Heart’s Awakening is a piece entirely inspired by the subconscious. Wanting to focus on the ideas of self and reflection, I decided to use the inspiration of “reinvention” as the rebirth of oneself, while still leaving room for interpretation. To explore this concept of rebirth further, I experimented with acrylic paint and a glowing effect on aspects of the painting, while adding more abstract and flat pieces such as the rays from the corner and the heart.
Alexis Georgiev
Butterflies In My Stomach
Mixed Media
Bell Creek Academy
Art Teacher: Charles Cawley
Grade 12
Alyssa Lubinsky
You Attract More Bees With Honey
Ink, Watercolor
Bell Creek Academy
Art Teacher: Charles Cawley
Grade 12
In this piece, I reimagined the sea turtle as a turtle with a beehive for its central body. The turtle’s honey attracts bees, but also draws the obsessive attention of humans, who view the turtle as nothing more than a specimen to be studied or admired. This symbolizes how one’s kindness can inspire empathy, yet also become a source of exploitation by others. I was inspired by Dalí’s use of reinvented animals in a plethora of his works.
Casey Biggs
Tree of Life
Digital, Photography
Blake High School
Art Teacher: Linda Galgani
Grade 12
Reinvention focuses on change, changing how you see things and how you perceive the world we live in. Changing how we see the foliage of a lake scene to perceive it as its tree changes its perspective, its reflection on the rippling lake completes it. Representing the tree of life, birds flock to it and it distorts the world behind it, causing the viewer’s eye to be drawn into it to perceive its symmetry.
Cora Bowen
Matter Unmade
Acrylic
Blake High School
Art Teacher: Linda Galgani
Grade 11
My piece explores disintegration, reflecting the fracturing of identity and form. Inspired by Salvador Dalí’s Nuclear Mysticism, the grid structure represents matter breaking apart, echoing his fascination with atomic theory. Drawing from Dalí’s exploration of destruction and reinvention, this work examines the beauty and complexity that emerge as the human face unravels, revealing the delicate balance between decay and transformation.
Aubrey Parker
Gripping The Mind
Digital, Photography, Collage
Blake High School
Art Teacher: Linda Galgani
Grade 11
My piece is about the concept of obsession. The hands holding the brain firmly in its grasp represent the powerful hold obsession has on our mind. Clocks show the passage of time throughout one, but are in the background to show how little we notice the time that slips away. Eyeballs look towards the subject of the piece, as their mind melts and disintegrates into a galaxy that represents the vastness of an obsession.
Scout Pytlak
Prosciutto Mary
Digital, Photography
Blake High School
Art Teacher: Linda Galgani
Grade 12
In this work, I wanted to feature an obsession with the flesh and holiness through certain religious imagery. In this painting, the Virgin Mary is wearing a prosciutto veil and the sacred heart is shown. Each number is tied back to a variety of Bible verses relating to how the flesh is considered to be sacred within the Bible. The repentance of these themes further pushes the obsession with holiness and meat.
Asijah Scott
The Act
Marker, Ink, Colored Pencil
Blake High School
Art Teacher: Molly Dressel
Grade 11
The work consists of a anxious person with her” perfect facade” in the form of a mask, slowly melting away, as their true thoughts and feelings come into view. The rest of the space represents her inner thoughts, telling her she can’t keep up this act for much longer. The inspiration for this was that we all might have a “mask” that we put on to keep others from knowing our true thoughts and how we really feel, whether it’s to try and fit in with others, or just to be accepted by society.
Madelaine Suero
Time Consumed
Ceramics
Blake High School
Art Teacher: Caitlin Clay
Grade 11
I can never find a perfect way to balance my time, so my art illustrates that. The figures depicted transform into grandfather clocks. On the top right is a yellow eye of time, crying clock tears signifying giving time to people. Black silhouettes on the far right are ingesting time’s tears. In the eye’s pupil, the hands of the clock are at 4:44, meaning transformation, and the hands of the clock on the figures point to 5:55 meaning new beginnings.
Madelyn Bowers
Step Up
Colored Pencil
Bloomingdale High School
Art Teacher: Pamela Reeves
Grade 9
The idea behind this piece is obsessing over perfection. The themes of obsession and disintegration are represented with the feeling of being compressed and stuck in your own work, causing deterioration, shown with the smaller person. Reinvention is shown with the larger person walking away from obsession and feeling free. Surrealist techniques that were used for inspiration are levitation, scale, and symbolism.
Hudson Dean
Game of Chance
Mixed Media
Bloomingdale High School
Art Teacher: Pamela Reeves
Grade 10
I didn’t have any particular inspiration for this piece, but knew I wanted to focus on an obsession with money. I took this obsession into a darker area by shifting to an obsession with money through gambling. To show this, my art depicts a man, chained up in a casino, showing his obsession isn’t healthy, but still inescapable. To emphasize the loss of money from this obsession, I depicted money dissolving around him.
Emily Pedersen
Reminiscent
Mixed Media
Bloomingdale High School
Art Teacher: Pamela Reeves
Grade 10
“Reminiscent” reflects my grandmother’s aging, fragility, and obsession with the past. I responded to the exhibit’s theme with doubles of the old woman, symbolizing her memories of youth. The disintegrating young woman represents fading memories and the struggle to restore them. The young girl embodies childhood innocence and longing. Butterflies signify transformation and rebirth. I used surrealist techniques like scale, transparency, disintegration, and dislocation.
Paloma P. Vasquez
Always Out Of Time
Mixed Media
Bloomingdale High School
Art Teacher: Pamela Reeves
Grade 10
Gabriela Jimenez
28 Days
Colored Pencil, Charcoal, Ink
Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School
Art Teacher: Madeilynann Mitchell
Grade 12
Veronica Mason
Waiting For The Butterflies
Acrylic
Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School
Art Teacher: Madeilynann Mitchell
Grade 12
I have created an all acrylic piece that depicts the obsession and disintegration caused by negative self image. Whether it’s external or internal self loathing can break people down as depicted by the cracked doll’s head. This image shows the doll’s head emerging out of a pool symbolizing negative thoughts that their head was previously drowning in. Left cracked and broken, the head waits for the butterflies that bring transformation and rebirth.
Zaylee Udozorh
Habitat Subversion
Acrylic
Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School
Art Teacher: Madeilynann Mitchell
Grade 10
In response to the exhibit’s theme, I thought of making a piece that reflects our world, specifically the natural world, but is somehow inverse. Fiction stories, specifically cartoons, inspire me in how they’re so masterfully able to convey a certain story or message in exaggerated worlds; the style I went with reflects this. In reality, the creatures obviously wouldn’t survive in those environments, though, nonetheless, they’re thriving in the respective habitats they found themselves in.
Lila Cihaner
Painting of Delusions
Digital
Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School
Art Teacher: Michael Edwards
Grade 9
My artwork is about obsession and the idea of painting yourself into a new person. I combined flowers and goldfish with floating eyeballs to show the restless, watchful feeling of desire. The flowers and fish represent beauty and fragility, while the eyeballs show an intense focus, like how obsession sticks in your mind. The human heart connects everything, representing deep feelings of longing. Through these images, I wanted to show how strong emotions can change you.
Octavio Silva Colmenares
American Dream
Digital
Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School
Art Teacher: Michael Edwards
Grade 10
The apple represents the perfect American dream with an eagle head. Money surrounds the cage, symbolizing how everything is driven by money. The padded room signifies the chaos and madness brought by the pursuit of the dream, reflected in the apocalyptic world outside the window. For the Dali categories, the eagle head makes the apple look like it’s melting, showing disintegration. The abundance of money indicates obsession, and the drones building the city outside represent reinvention.
Aiden Clarke
The Heart of Life
Mixed Media
Durant High School
Art Teacher: Jaclyn Bowers
Grade 12
The heart of life’s message is, the closer you get to your obsession, the more you’ll disintegrate, while on lookers watch with no words to say.
Jordan Figueroa
El Burrito
Marker
Durant High School
Art Teacher: David Veto
Grade 11
I was inspired by my favorite fast-food restaurant Chipotle. To respond to this exhibit’s theme I made the building disintegrate off the page and raining burritos to emphasize my obsession. I also incorporated levitation by placing the building on a floating island. This shows how my obsession with burritos is a lot higher than other obsessions I have. I responded to Dali’s work by showing my obsession by repeating burritos as he did with clocks.
Ashaunti Graham
How to Turn Plastic into Flesh
Colored Pencil
Durant High School
Art Teacher: Aaron Bowers
Grade 10
At the core of my piece is a poignant narrative about a doll and a rabbit surgeon who dreams of turning the doll into a human girl. The doll’s torso shows her ribs and organs, while the rabbit gently holds her. Missing a piece of her head, she embodies vulnerability. Surrounding her are roses on her organs and butterflies on her brain, symbolizing beauty amid struggle, with scattered eyes in the background representing unfulfilled dreams.
Alyssa Knecht
One Last Breath
Mixed Media
Durant High School
Art Teacher: Jaclyn Bowers
Grade 11
For this piece I was inspired by Sergio Cupido’s “Romeo and Juliet” and multiple other surrealist artists including Salvador Dali. this piece represents obsession towards a significant other. I took inspiration from the disintegration theme to burn the edges and add holes into the piece. using juxtaposition to add more confusion and interesting features to this piece I added any random features I could think of.
Kaitlynn Peters
A Glimpse Through Time
Watercolor, Acrylic
Durant High School
Art Teacher: Aaron Bowers
Grade 12
With this piece, I was inspired by time and how it is always running out. As a senior in high school, Ive realized my time is short, with only 4 months until graduation I still haven’t decided what I want to do with my future. I’ve incorporated the themes by focusing on obsession and reinvention. Showing how focusing on past and time has given me opportunities to reinvent and change myself for the better. For this project I used scale factor and levitation as the two main surrealism techniques.
Marissa Rodriguez
Vanity of Oneself
Mixed Media
Durant High School
Art Teacher: Jaclyn Bowers
Grade 10
Sophia Cui
Neurotica
Mixed Media
Freedom High School
Art Teacher: D.J. Fintel
Grade 9
It emphasizes the way disintegration plays a huge role not only in human life but also in many other things such as flowers. Similar to how many things are recreated, it gives a sense of nirvana and a cloak of the unexpected.
Reanna Ewen
Worldly Decay Shown in The Human Body
Colored Pencil, Ink, Watercolor, Marker
Freedom High School
Art Teacher: D.J. Fintel
Grade 12
This art work shows how our world is dying, and so are we. The air pollution is killing our lungs, our water, and even our skin, and you can see with the discoloration. If we do not work towards stopping this, we will not survive on this world. We only have one Earth. Let’s keep it clean.
Laila Nieves
Through Your Eyes
Colored Pencil, Watercolor, Ink
Freedom High School
Art Teacher: D.J. Fintel
Grade 12
I decided to showcase the theme, obsession, disintegration, and reinvention through the idea of self-image. We live in a society where the way you look matters more than it should. There are set beauty standards that some of us can’t reach. Whether it’s through surgery or personality changes, we obsess over getting to a point where we can look in the mirror and say, “wow I look beautiful”, even if those changes destroy us in the process.
Samantha Sutton
Pensamientos
Mixed Media
Freedom High School
Art Teacher: D.J. Fintel
Grade 10
My art piece was inspired by the exploration of capturing the feeling of obsession when it overcomes your individual senses. My work aims to depict the intensity and all-consuming nature of that emotion.
K-Vaughn Collins
Life In Spirals
Graphite
Middleton High School
Art Teacher: Kim Padron
Grade 11
The theme for my surrealist piece was obsession. I’ve always thought the vast, boundless nature of space was interesting, so I started there. From there, as I began to sketch, I noticed everything looping together and found my obsession with infinity. Life is a limitless spiral, and in that loop is many stages between life and death. That was the inspiration for the everyday objects looping around the Earth.
Ruby Layland
Obsessive Production
Ink
Middleton High School
Art Teacher: Kim Padron
Grade 11
When starting this piece, I reinvented an obsession of mine- Inky Cap Mushrooms. The ink drops on the mushroom’s rim would be painted on by a person, the ink supplied by octopi. I used a play on its name to turn it into a “cap” for my character. As my character developed, I determined their own obsession-production. Their obsession veils them from living their life behind them, represented by smoke obscuring sight of what the “live” arrow leads to.
Ana Luna Marrero
Detention of the Truth (Your Sight Is Obsessive)
Ink, Graphite, Watercolor, Marker
Middleton High School
Art Teacher: Kim Padron
Grade 10
The eyes looking at all sides represent how always the people on the top will be looking at us controlling everything we do, trying to keep us in a mold. Like in a factory, since birth, we are produced to have a certain opinion, create a certain identity but without going to far, because they’ll be looking. We could think that the factory is deteriorating, because just for that the mases have fought for centuries, but it is still working.
Vandana Rajasekar
Blossom in Ruins
Mixed Media
Middleton High School
Art Teacher: Kim Padron
Grade 10
In Blossom in Ruins, I explore obsession and reinvention through transformation, scale change, and symbolic dislocation. The lotus flowers reflect my deep reverence for Lakshmi. A broken vase at the top releases rain, symbolizing how destruction fosters renewal. The earthy scent of rain on streets and the soft glow of café lights evoke a cherished atmosphere. Reinvention is a continuous cycle—beauty exists even in brokenness, just as a shattered vase can release rain that brings life to a scene.
Laura Lopera Usme
Revival of Adam
Colored Pencil, Marker
Middleton High School
Art Teacher: Kim Padron
Grade 11
The “Revival of Adam,” is based on Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” which presents the concept of how ephemeral life is, and how easily we come by it. In the Revival of Adam, the hands are each showing the two distinct sides of humanity — life (portrayed as outstretched hand with the third eye) and death (the skeleton hand). Life is made up by our perception of reality (third eye), each moment shaping us into thriving figures (flowers blooming).
Lola Brandon
The Physics of Dali
Mixed Media
Plant High School
Art Teacher: Brian Taylor
Grade 10
Cadence Dabulis
Forever in Depth
Mixed Media
Plant High School
Art Teacher: Josephine Johnson
Grade 9
This piece is about the struggles of fame and the dark secrets that lie behind all the glory. It also represents the feeling of pressure due to the obsession of the viewers and the millions of opinions that people have to say. While also the rebirth into something new, something free and away from society’s ideals.
Luke Dunbar
A Safe Place To Be
Mixed Media
Plant High School
Art Teacher: Brian Taylor
Grade 12
Annika Karr
Blossoming Into Oblivion
Mixed Media
Plant High School
Art Teacher: Josephine Johnson
Grade 11
Death. The gruesome loss of a soul, tied to the need for survival and the satisfaction of hunger. Death. The disintegration of one’s self, the gore being brought to light. Death. The reinvention, the red of the floral rises. Death. The serenity of peace and falling to oblivion.
Lulu Landry
The Duality of Food
Mixed Media
Plant High School
Art Teacher: Josephine Johnson
Grade 11
This work shows the struggle of having two obsessive sides to an eating disorder: binge eating and anorexia. The symbol of the skeleton is used to show the deathly toll the eating disorder has taken over the body. Additionally, the skeleton shows a struggle within its mindset by deciding between compulsively eating or taking pills to remain thin. I created this work inspired by my personal struggle with my body image and the relationship I have with food.
Augie Richardson
Is It The Glass? Me? Or Her?
Mixed Media
Plant High School
Art Teacher: Brian Taylor
Grade 10
Phoebe Cutting
Creation
Acrylic, Colored Pencil, Marker
Plant City High School
Art Teacher: Niki Carpenter
Grade 12
This art explores humanity’s obsession with creation, blending myths and scientific theories into a surreal composition. A woman reads a book authored by an alien, symbolizing the search for answers beyond Earth. The series of planets represent the progression of evolution. Space appears to shatter, illustrating the Big Bang Theory. Above, a celestial figure watches, embodying the religious belief in a higher power. The piece shows surrealism through its dreamlike imagery and symbolic contrasts.
Jada Gordon
Obsession of Love
Mixed Media
Plant City High School
Art Teacher: Niki Carpenter
Grade 11
The obsession of Love: My inspiration for this painting is when someone gets so attached to another person that it becomes like a drug. The more they hurt and the more they love they crave for the feeling of falling for others. The drug gets so overwhelming that it turns into poison in their veins making them obsessed to a heartfelt feeling in their chest. For example, the girl that I have painted has fallen too deep on this drug. She now has the human heart of her past lover.
Yarely Orozco-Jaimes
Desire
Mixed Media
Plant City High School
Art Teacher: Niki Carpenter
Grade 12
This art piece is about wanting something you can’t have which correlates to obsession, there is a desire but that desire wonders around like a fish so you can’t help but obsess over it, wanting it or them to be yours. I wanted to create and show a dreamlike image with juxtaposition and collage to create an effect of capturing and reaching something that is to be desired. Love or even a goal are always the two things people tend to obsess over and in the end everything starts to connect.
Ava Pradera
Source Of Potassium – 3 Vitamin D
Mixed Media
Plant City High School
Art Teacher: Niki Carpenter
Grade 10
For my Surrealist piece, “Source of Potassium – 3 Vitamin D” I printed a photo of an 8 10 banana I recently painted with acrylic paint. The idea was to have a hyper-realistic painting with silly doodles to contrast and 3D designs to really make the banana pop. I then created little characters on the banana. I wanted to create an obsessive feel with all the characters around the banana. I wanted the viewer to be drawn to the stick figures without taking from the banana, so I made them white.
Madison Roney
Gorilla Photography
Graphite, Ink
Plant City High School
Art Teacher: Niki Carpenter
Grade 12
I juxtaposed gorillas and ants where gorillas represent the artist and ants are the audience. The gorilla is large and distant from the ants, making art for himself. He’s so obsessed with his art that he’s not concerned with his audience. This demonstrates disintegration of the gorilla’s concern for his audience, freedom of showing the world as he sees it. The art goes through reinvention as the ants see the world through the eyes of the gorilla.
Kenny Bahta
Firmware Faith
Oil Pastel, Colored Pencil, Acrylic
Riverview High School
Art Teacher: Valerie Skindel
Grade 12
This work explores the rapidly growing connection between technology and humanity. From fingertips to neurons, we are intertwined—thoughts deep-fried in content, heartbeats cradled in wires. Technology is both an escape and a tether, an inescapable force that shapes our world, for better or for worse.
Riley Cloversettle
Nature’s Odd Beauty
Charcoal, Marker
Riverview High School
Art Teacher: Valerie Skindel
Grade 9
My love for the outdoors comes down to how beautiful it can be in the most peculiar ways. Whether it’s comes off as eerie, ethereal, or even just purely inspiring. This piece captures how I feel wanting to be a part of the outdoors and just how picturesque it is even if it’s the smallest detail.
Hugo Hillier
Obsession
Oil
Riverview High School
Art Teacher: Valerie Skindel
Grade 11
My work, “Obsession” is made of oil paint on paper and represents my own struggles throughout my life. I took inspiration from Salvador Dali’s use of dream-like settings to convey my message. I responded to the theme “Obsession, Disintegration and Reinvention” by using the white rabbit to represent myself, and the teeth and silverware to represent my worries.
Emily Mervine
Obsession
Acrylic, Colored Pencil
Riverview High School
Art Teacher: Valerie Skindel
Grade 9
My piece is titled “Obsession” to describe the feeling that many people have today, the obsession with being watched. All eyes are on you and everyone notices every little mistake being made. All the eyes in the painting are looking forwards as if they are looking directly at you, and the braces emphasize the feeling of teenage insecurity. The ants add an element of all of the hateful words that many people are worried about. The fear that their own peers are talking behind their backs.
Gabrielle Colon
Phone Cereal
Digital Art
Robinson High School
Art Teacher: Bradley Watson
Grade 11
Ava Brookings
Obsession
Mixed Media
Sickles High School
Art Teacher: Cheyanne Causby
Grade 10
The art piece is about a nervous system getting ready for the day, she is obsessing over every minute detail about herself. She wants to show the people around her that she is perfect no matter what, despite the fact that she is a pile of veins. She needs the perfect eyes, lips, hair, body, she’s trying to make herself beautiful but she’s just a nervous system. Who would want that?
Mallory Heller
Inside Voice
Ceramics, Photography
Sickles High School
Art Teacher: Melissa Kirera
Grade 10
My inspiration for this piece is my mental health and anxiety, which often manifest as obsessive thoughts. I see parallels in Dali’s work, where there’s always more than meets the eye. The colors and the form of the face peeling back resonate with me, reflecting the overlapping, gripping lines of anxiety in my mind. This piece challenges the mind and explores the unconscious reality, embodying the juxtaposition of visible and hidden struggles.
Kylana Prince
Inner Spirit
Acrylic, Colored Pencil
Sickles High School
Art Teacher: Cheyanne Causby
Grade 12
My work explores the relationship between humans and their spirit animals. With influences from my own life and experiences of those around me, new synergies are crafted using art styles of realism with surrealism elements. The main subject is a self-portrait with a bear spirit overlayed on top. This emphasizes themes of reinvention and obsession. Using emphasis, texture, and movement, I intended for the viewer to understand the tone of vulnerability in strength.
Roselyn Ruano
Many Faces
Oil
Sickles High School
Art Teacher: Cheyanne Causby
Grade 9
My piece was inspired by having multiple personalities that you wear on your face to please certain people, never showing your own true face which is why she is facing away.
Keira Cardon
Primitive Fluidity
Oil Pastel
Steinbrenner High School
Art Teacher: Kris Watkinson
Grade 12
Annika Kaw
Piñata
Mixed Media
Steinbrenner High School
Art Teacher: Kris Watkinson
Grade 11
This piece contains cultural elements of my Chinese and Filipino heritage. Each side of my heritage represented by objects which are jumbled in my mind. The splitting head to show how I feel like my identity is being split apart by the two sides. The head is drawn in graphite versus the bright markers and bold pen for the inside of the head.
Greydis Acevedo
My Companion
Marker, Watercolor
Strawberry Crest High School
Art Teacher: Barbara Lawton
Grade 10
Hands are an artists biggest obsession. The need to perfect a simple sketch of one is truly a wonder. Our biggest struggle is our own companions.
Annett Campos-Hernandez
More, More, More
Acrylic, Watercolor
Strawberry Crest High School
Art Teacher: Barbara Lawton
Grade 11
Some of the greatest artists in the world were known for their obsessions. Whether it be over a specific subject, color, or in this case, for the pure obsession to keep painting. In this piece, we can see an unknown figure standing and chained to their own ideas while under the watch of their own mind.
Lillian Holdren
What Went Wrong?
Mixed Media
Strawberry Crest High School
Art Teacher: Kirsten Whittaker
Grade 11
My main inspiration was a lot of scriptures about lust that I had been receiving so when I heard the theme for this piece I knew I had to work with it. The theme of disintegration shows how we put ourselves out there and it ends up taking away parts of ourselves and removing our innocence.
Alba Martinez
Palomas
Colored Pencil
Strawberry Crest High School
Art Teacher: Barbara Lawton
Grade 9
For my art piece, I decided to add pigeons as to me, they are interesting animals. The jars contain different places where humans may be at and pigeons live near where humans are most of the times which gave me the idea for the different locations in jars and the different breeds of pigeons.
Cecilia Pasek
A Reflection of Reality
Mixed Media
Strawberry Crest High School
Art Teacher: Barbara Lawton
Grade 10
Sometimes when life faces you, you do not know what to do. Our life is shaped by our perception of it, so no two realities are the same. Therefore, when faced with trouble, a turning point, you get to decide how you react and what you perceive. Do you trust the guiding light? Or sink into a deep abyss? The choice is always yours.
Gabriela Saldana
Speak
Mixed Media
Strawberry Crest High School
Art Teacher: Kirsten Whittaker
Grade 9
This piece is inspired by those who cannot speak up, those who feel as if their life has been ruined and taken away. The lamps are there to represent the people who’ll try and help you and the caterpillar is there to represent hope.
Drishti Satodiya
Under Construction
Mixed Media
Strawberry Crest High School
Art Teacher: Kirsten Whittaker
Grade 11
“Under Construction” explores the relationship between biological and technological reconstruction and disintegration. I wanted to replicate the unsettling feeling Salvador Dali’s work gives to the audience through the use of surrealist distortion. Through the use of dismembered organs, mechanical components, and organic matter I aimed to also depict the desire to become a useful member in society, even if it means dehumanizing oneself in the process.
Natalie Bulnes
Hybridization
Graphite
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: Nayoung Lee
Grade 12
I was inspired to make this drawing for the love of animals I have always had since I was little. Drawing is my passion. To make this drawing I only used a pencil.
Olivia Elie
The Magic of Baking Cakes
Mixed Media
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: Juan Duarte
Grade 11
The art of baking a cake is a fun and tasty experience that reminds me of joyful moments spent with my family. It can get messy—flour on the counter, batter everywhere, spilled milk, and eggshells lying on the counter. This chaos is part of the fun of baking. The key part is combining the ingredients and whisking them into one delicious dessert. What inspired me was the image of my Mom baking in the kitchen and the sweet aroma floating in the air.
Ava Foreman
Ants In A Mound
Acrylic
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: Amanda Winkler
Grade 10
This piece shows my obsession for bugs. Their vivid colors always attracted me to them. The meaning of this piece is a representation of society and our government. It shows the divisions of classes, the bugs representing the citizens being separated by water bubbles. Some bubbles are covered by a dark cloth, which shows the government is not truly honest with us about everything. Stuff is always hidden from our view, usually being the most impactful. The eyes show the press capturing the events.
Maxamillion Meizies
Untitled #1
Colored Pencil
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: April McMillion
Grade 9
This piece is of a decaying face inside with a colorful patterned background. The meaning behind it is that we have a decaying self-image of ourselves in a world of creative expression and freedom.
Gianna Rolls
Reconstruction
Watercolor
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: Amanda Winkler
Grade 10
My work is titled “Reconstruction” and represents themes of disintegration, reinvention, and obsession. The robot is dismantling itself in order to create something new from its pieces, and it is so consumed by and obsessed with this goal that it disregards its own destruction.
Giselle Salcedo
Wait For It
Marker, Colored Pencil, Ink, Chalk Pastel
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: Nayoung Lee
Grade 12
I’ve always felt like I’ve desperately needed to change. Reading the theme “Reinvention” was my gateway to express this feeling I harbor. I focused on the transformation technique by having each frame differ. Each phase pulls itself toward solidifying into one—the finished product. My family has always been enthusiasts of Dalí. I had stared at the paintings of his we had in the house. I wondered what they meant. To have my work alongside Dalí’s is an honor beyond words.
Isaiah Sanders
A Road To Life
Colored Pencil
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: Amanda Winkler
Grade 11
The theme of my art piece connects with reinvention. This is because I made it based on the premise of naturalization and “returning to nature,” which is why the main focus of the piece is a “road to life.” For this, I used primarily scale and dreamlike imagery for the tongue that turns into a road. I was inspired by what I’m currently learning in history – which is urbanization and modern industrialism – as well as the consequences of steering away from the natural world.
Bailey Slaughter
What Are We Worth?
Colored Pencil, Graphite, Ink
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: Nayoung Lee
Grade 10
My work was inspired by the many terrible ways society treats women. I chose to focus on depicting obsession and disintegration in this work. The image shows various hands picking and tearing apart the pomegranates attached to the woman’s body, representing the detrimental effect of society’s obsession with physical perfection. The pomegranates taking over the woman’s body, while simultaneously being ripped apart, shows how society exploits and destroys women with unending expectations.
Lena Villanueva
The Lone One
Mixed Media
Sumner High School
Art Teacher: April McMillion
Grade 10
My work explores a surreal realm of red roses, each identical, symbolizing uniformity. Through the disintegration of the rose, a transformation begins—a spark of renewal. The grey rose, reborn, becomes an outcast, melted into its new form, The Lone One, embodying the cycle of decay and reinvention.
Avery Burns
Growing Pains
Digital
Tampa Preparatory School
Art Teacher: Martha DeAmbrose
Grade 12
To reinvent yourself, you must first be destroyed. You must choose to grow and change. To reflect on this idea, I illustrated a girl looking out from beneath a flower. The flower surrounds her head, protecting and encasing her in dullness. She looks out into the vibrant scene filled with the color green. She isn’t happy nor displeased about this—she’s growing, an inevitable event—but it’s her choice to either return to the flower or embrace the vibrancy around her, to reinvent herself.
Lili Lechman
Stung
Oil
Tampa Preparatory School
Art Teacher: Martha DeAmbrose
Grade 12
It is not surprising that a world that often values women through their outward appearance is one that breeds obsession over beauty. The nitpicking, analyzing, and total dehumanization that comes with an obsession of beauty from oneself or from another, can manifest in swarms and buzzes of deteriorating thoughts of one’s perception of self. This piece offers a manifestation of unhealthy obsession of self-critique, spurred on by societal expectations of women’s appearance.
Shanika Ligile
The Words That Are in One’s Mind
Colored Pencil
Wharton High School
Art Teacher: Jennifer Willis
Grade 9
A boy inspired me on the internet with a disease. I responded to the exhibit’s theme by using disintegration near the head area that got pierced with an arrow and reinvention with the mouth being his head and the body being a person. Salvador Dali’s work was very interesting with various symbolism in his art piece. I used one surrealist technique and that is symbolism in color psychology.