Seneca Love looked proud and shy recently as he received a national award for his artwork at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. The 11-year-old Penobscot Indian had won first place nationwide, for grades 3-5, in the U.S. Department of Education’s annual Native American Student Art Competition.

Love, a fifth-grader at the Indian Island School, was recognized, along with other American Indian students from around Maine, during the gala opening of the 2006 Waponahki Student Art Show early this month. Last year’s show was a great success, traveling to the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine and to the Portland Museum of Art, where it still is drawing attention and accolades from patrons.

While their work is generating buzz from afar, the young artists said that expressing themselves creatively is a way of returning to their roots. Through art, the students unite aspects of family, their communities and their tribal heritage. And in a world of constant change, art enables the students to preserve a moment for all time.

“I like it because you can just paint your thoughts, put what’s on your mind on a piece of paper, and that way you can never forget the memory. You can have it forever,” Seneca reflected.

His colorful, dreamy painting “Sweet Dreams,” described as a lithograph and watercolor, is a peaceful image of a American Indian woman sleeping in the arms of the Great Spirit depicted as a bear.

“I used a gentle turquoise to set the big bright colors on the bear and the girl,” Seneca wrote in his artist’s statement. “The raven represents the bear’s arm. I used a glossy purple-pink to bring out the black lines. The moons play an important part. The moons show it is nighttime. I used a bright yellow and used plenty of water to hush the color.”

Seneca’s parents beamed at their son and admired the framed paintings hung carefully around a spacious, brightly lighted gallery.

“It’s a great feeling, to see the abilities and imagination of children,” Tim Love said. “It’s fascinating to see what they come up with.”

The artists, ranging from kindergartners to high school seniors, represented the Beatrice Rafferty School at Pleasant Point (Sipayik), the Indian Island School at Indian Island, the Indian Township School at Peter Dana Point, Orono High School, Hampden Academy, Lee Academy and Calais High School. Art teachers encourage all pupils in the reservation schools to participate in the annual juried art show in which a work from each grade and each school is selected for display.

The young artists also write a statement explaining their pieces.

Eve Dana, 18, of Indian Island, is about to graduate from Orono High School. Her piece, “Sacred Prayer,” portrays an old man wearing traditional clothing, puffing on a ceremonial pipe. Within the clouds of smoke is hidden the face of an ancestor.

“You can see the ancestor’s face watching over all of us,” she said. “It’s just to honor them. It gives me something to look up to, someone to pray to. It’s just my religion.”

Eve plans to go to the University of Maine, where she will study art education. The well-spoken young woman said she was glad to see all the native youngsters who roamed around the gallery in happy packs and party clothes. In their enthusiastic faces and their simple but beautiful drawings, Eve said she saw a smiling future for the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes.

“It’s really good to see all the smaller children recognized for their traditional arts,” she said. “It gives me hope. It’s good to see it’s not dying out.”

Eve’s father, Barry Dana, is the former Penobscot Nation chief. He said that Indian cultures always have had a strong connection to art forms such as basketry and beadwork, and pointed out the many animal and forest images on view around the room.

“There’s thousands of years of history there,” he said. “What I like to see when I look at the art is that it’s 90 percent nature. It shows you the culture is still strong.”

Ana Rapp, 18, a 12th-grader from Hampden Academy, looked to the past for artistic inspiration for her charcoal and pencil sketch, “Young Knowledge.” She was looking through her grandfather’s books when she found a photo of a young girl standing with a bow and arrow. The girl looked determined and capable, traits that Ana admires.

“She looks like she’s incredibly young and she’s learning everything from our tradition,” Ana said. “It’s a reminder to me … that’s our lives, just remembering who we are and where we came from.”

Ana said that other reminders can be found inside the Abbe Museum. One of her distant relatives was the Penobscot Arnie Neptune, who can be seen in a photo gracing the museum’s walls.

“It’s really neat and overwhelming to know there’s a piece of your family here,” she said.

For Ron Jenkins, the superintendent of Maine Indian Education, the art show serves a big purpose.

“It’s been great,” he said. “The parents seem to love it, and of course, the kids’ work is great … I think it’s an opportunity for them to express their culture in a way that is understood to them. They can’t help but be affected by that.”

The 2006 Waponahki Student Art Show opens to the general public Thursday, May 25, and runs through mid-November at the Abbe Museum. Call 288-3519 for information or visit www.abbemuseum.org.