WillsMcFadden

When I change the way I look at life, life begins to change.

The work

Wills draws and paints the way some people read: closely, and then again. Her pages begin in graphite — a hen drawn feather by feather, the five-petaled star of a sand dollar — and arrive, years later, at oil-pastel suns and tidal blues and a figure whose head is a single enormous eye.

Again and again, in different years, she returns to the eye — watching, weeping, rising out of dark water — and to the light it sees by: candle flames, a low sun through bare branches, a cut citrus glowing like a lantern.

SilverKey2025

Recognition

A Silver Key for Candlelight

Seven flames, one melted mass of wax, a table scratched with wood grain. In 2025 the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards gave it a Silver Key.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the country’s longest-running recognition program for creative teens. Berkshire School announced the 2025 results on April 3, 2025: 22 of its students were recognized for 33 pieces, and Wills McFadden ’27 was one of seven students named for Silver Keys.

Sources: Berkshire School, “2025 Scholastic Art Awards”  ·  the school’s gallery of the winning pieces.