Shoes can take us places, and nobody learned that lesson this week better than King’s Fork High School student Robert White.

The same shoes that took him to school one day last month earned him the Best in Show Award at the Suffolk Art League’s 32nd annual Exhibit of Excellence.

White said he got the white Vans from the thrift store, but they were a little dirty. He never intended for them to be an art project, and certainly not an entry in the show for high-school artists. It just happened.

“I wanted to cover up the stains and make it not look so bad,” White said. “I wanted to see what it would be like to draw on a different canvas.”

He came up with the idea for one shoe and, once it was accomplished, realized it would be impossible to replicate exactly on the other shoe. So he went for the contrasting point of view.

“That’s OK, but I could do better,” he remembers thinking once he was done with his fabric markers. “I was actually going to throw them away.”

But then he wore them to school on the day that entries were due for the art league’s annual show spotlighting local artists in 10th, 11th and 12th grades.

“He wasn’t going to do anything, because he didn’t think it was good enough,” said White’s art teacher, Stephanie Gwaltney. When she saw him wearing the shoes in class, she knew he would have an entry.

“Take those off your feet right now,” she recalled telling him. White had to call his mother to get a pair of shoes to wear for the rest of the day.

Gwaltney’s eye for art — even when it’s on someone’s feet — helped White win the Best in Show Award in the exhibition. Juror Alex Mann, the curator of American art at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, said it was just what he was looking for.

“I was looking for when I feel like the students are bringing some of themselves into the project,” he said. “They did a really good job. There were a lot more that could have won awards.”

First place in the show went to Mitchell Hartman of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy for his reading self-portrait.

He said he used a timer on the camera to shoot the photo and took about 60 pictures before he got the right one.

He had a different favorite, but that one didn’t even make it in the show.

“This one’s my favorite now,” he said.

Maggie More of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy won second place in the show with her Prismacolor pencil drawing of paintbrushes in a jar.

“I love art,” More said, adding that the drawing was a class assignment in which they had to do a “direct observation” — depict something just the way it looks.

“I tried to come up with an interesting subject,” she said.

Buddy White of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy won third place with his photo of a lightbulb, seen through a prism, with a mirror in the background.

He said he was looking through a prism at the television when he came up with the idea to experiment with photography involving prisms.

“When I saw it in the camera, I thought, ‘This is amazing,’” he said.

Art League Executive Director Linda Bunch said the opportunity for high-schoolers to exhibit in a professional setting is important.

“It is an exhibit well worth the time to come see,” she said. “We have some very talented young artists.”

About 108 students entered two works each for jurying. About 118 were selected for the exhibit.

The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. The Exhibit of Excellence is on display through Feb. 28.

Honorable mention winners in the show were:

• Donell Blount, Lakeland High School
• Isabella Naccarato, Lauren Park and Kaylyn Swinson, King’s Fork High School
• Nathan Soper, Nansemond-Suffolk Academy
• Avanna Williams, Nansemond River High School
• Theodore Zhang, Nansemond-Suffolk Academy

The full list of exhibiting artists is:

King’s Fork High School

• Amber Abernethy
• Hannah Atkins
• Savannah Briggs
• Tavonia Claud
• Maddison Gomer
• Cedric Holley
• Lasaan Jordan
• Emma Marston
• Chelsea Matthews
• Isabella Naccarato
• Lauren Park
• Mary Pruden
• Sarah Rhodes
• Autumn Roberson
• Tareba Russell
• R’eaana Scott
• Kaylyn Swinson
• Christian Taylor
• Nona Towns
• Reagan Wells
• Robert White
• Karlie Whitehead
• Dayshia Wiggins
• Simone Williams

Lakeland High School

• Tatiyahna Blakely
• Alexis Blizzard
• Donell Blount
• Allison Boles
• Josie Brackett
• Autumn Branch
• Grace Brinson
• Nathan Brown
• Katelyn Creech
• Madison Davis
• Savannah Dever
• Kortnie Downie
• Emily Foster
• Haley Fuller
• Ta’Shayla Goodman
• Giavanni McGlone
• Hart Parker
• Grace Pierce
• Ariel Salerno
• Javon Lee Curtis Saunders
• Ashley Wright

Nansemond River High School

• Raven Askew
• Taylor Fontenot
• Sydney Gregg
• Jenny Kleps
• Catherine Rhone
• Hannah Romey
• Mikaela Shivley
• Caroline Stephens
• Bria Washington
• Natalie White
• Avanna Williams

Nansemond-Suffolk Academy

• Sarah Brazil
• Victoria Bridgeman
• Bowman Browne
• Eleanor Burcham
• Dominick Claxton
• Eliza Coxe
• Gabriella Cui
• Madison Currin
• Colson Danneker
• Kepton Davis
• Cole Dignard
• Kittrell Eberwine
• Caitlyn Hannah
• Mitchell Hartman
• Julia Hayden
• Mallory Hobson
• Yaqiao Hu
• Eric Huffman
• Michael Hughes
• Allison Johnson
• Jack Johnson
• Sylvie Joyner
• Clair Kelly
• Kaya Kettles
• Lauren Lazzara
• Julian Leidy
• Emily Mason
• Abram Maxwell
• Halie McConnell
• Zach Meyers
• Maggie More
• Christopher Morgan
• Taylor Morrell
• Katie Peelen
• Tori Psimas
• Emerson Puzey
• Sasha Roberts
• Nathan Soper
• Anne Spady
• Eric Teumer
• Buddy White
• Sam Wright
• Theodore Zhang

Renaissance School of Art

• Lauren Ayres