Every year, art teacher Sharon Scharf enters her students’ artwork into the Fresno Fair’s High School Art Competition. The pieces will be on display in the Jr. Exhibits at the fair from Oct. 7-18.

Scharf has entered many students and won prizes in past fairs, and this year she hopes to do the same.

“I’m always confident [in my students’ art],” Scharf said. “Art is such a subjective thing: you could enter a piece of art in one competition and earn best in show, but enter it somewhere else and win absolutely nothing. It all depends on who’s judging it. We won many awards last year, so I have high hopes for this year.”

The submissions feature works from several of Scharf’s students, including Katie Barisic, ’13; Forrest Hale, ’12; Lizzie Williams, ’12; Zedekiah Fries, ’12; and Samantha Kaiser, ’10.

Because her students possess different talents, Scharf hopes the judges will be “blown away” by the variety.

“Samantha’s very talented, and she has two scratchbords with color,” Scharf said. “That really blows them away, because usually scratchbords are done only in black and white.”

According to Scharf, a scratchbord is a slab of wood covered in ink. Artists use a chisel to scratch the paint off, creating a mark.

Another of Scharf’s students, Fries, is also entering a couple of pieces into the fair. His submissions include two scratchbords: one of a leopard and the other of a mountain lion.

“I like scratchbording because I’m good at it,” Fries said. “I am confident in the stuff I entered into the fair, although the stuff I entered is pretty random.”

For more information, e-mail Scharf.