When Marshall Dahlin picks up the program for the L.A. Opera production of Richard Strauss’ “Salome” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, it will be his artwork on the cover.
It’s in the Music Center plaza cases, too.
The 28-year-old Lomita man, a graphic design major in his last year at Cal State Fullerton, is the first-place winner of the L.A. Opera’s college student art contest in support of “Salome.” At Saturday’s opening-night cast dinner, he will receive $5,000 for his linocut print that depicts the heroine holding up the decapitated head of John the Baptist, his forehead planted with a red kiss.
“I knew I had to put forth my best work,” Dahlin says. “The opera is such a grand production and Salome is such an iconic symbol in art and culture I didn’t want to just create another poster, but I wanted to create a new, recognizable image to convey all the Salome stands for.”
Inspired by Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for the scandalous Oscar Wilde play on which Strauss’ opera is based, the work is one of three selected by a jury of executives and board members from the L.A. Opera and Annenberg Foundation.
The second- and third- place winners will be spotlighted on the inside pages of the program.
Contest judges were looking for multipurpose artwork reflective of the production’s setting, described as “a beautiful art nouveau moonlit night with intense and saturated color.”
“We didn’t know if we’d get one or 100 submissions,” says L.A. Opera spokesperson Fran Rizzi, adding the contest was announced in October around finals and just before the holidays. “But we were pleasantly surprised at the response we got.”
More than 35 submissions from 14 schools came in, many at the eleventh hour.
Runner up David Kwock, a 26-year-old from Long Beach majoring in art design at Cal State Dominguez Hills, will receive $2,000 for his artwork.
Inspired by minimalist silhouette-style movie posters, he also went with the iconic image of John the Baptist’s head.
“The shape I used for the face is an opera mask,” says Kwock, who is quadriplegic. “As I was drawing it on the computer, I thought it looked too simple. I gave it more detail by adding hair and a beard. I was really shocked when it won because I’ve never put my work out there before.”
Third-place winner Lauren Moss saw the ad for submissions pop up on her Facebook feed just two days before the deadline.
Her work is a take on the elaborate style of art nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha, who did a painting of Salome in 1897.
“I wanted to do mine from the perspective of Salome, because when I read the synopsis I really felt for her,” says Moss, a 31-year-old actor from Culver City enrolled in art classes at Santa Monica College. “She really loved John the Baptist, but her mother pushes her to have him killed. You’ll notice she looks sad because I wanted her to look like she is grieving.”
For her work, she will receive $1,000.
L.A. Opera typically hires professionals to create its marketing material. But through the support and partnership of GRoW@Annenberg, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten’s philanthropic initiative, it is able to provide both cash and recognition for the winners.
“The win is definitely validation,” Dahlin says. “It says I am moving in the right direction, to keep moving forward and to trust the process.”
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