Big congratulations are in order for Casey Perez, who beat out the entire city of Portland in the Mercury’s Second Annual Coloring Contest with his psychochromatic vision of the 4th of July as a nightmarish flashback of hallucinatory menace. (Did you catch the evil clown reaching up from the gutter?)

While Perez took home all the glory and a sweet $200, many other Portlanders sent in some great entries, making our jobs hard and extremely enjoyable. Here are our three favorite runners-up.

Addie Collins (age 8) and Sheila Baraga (AKA Mom)

In a visually complex composition that synthesizes two- and three-dimensional form, Addie and Sheila created a “stacked” drawing made from multiple color copies of the same page, which were then doused liberally with every 8-year-old’s favorite medium, glitter. The result is a visual concussion of color and sparkle that manages to encapsulate the gunpowder starbursts of celebratory patriotism.

Tali Purkerson

If there’s something to be said for good old fashioned craftsmanshp, it’s got to be said about Salem Crayonist Tali Purkerson. Many contend that since the death of Jacques-Louis David in 1825, the appreciation of skilled draughtsmanship has given way to the fetishization of antiaesthetic concept, but Purkerson uses crayolas with a pre-modernist grip—using chiaroscuro, deft color blending, and a subtle restraint that honors the original illustration.

Katisyn Sweeney

Katisyn Sweeney claims to be only two years old, a falsehood as preposterous as it is unnecessary. This work of art was clearly made by an individual of a refined sophistication, the likes of which we rarely have the pleasure of encountering in one lifetime. Sweeney’s art is a uniquely post-9/11 creation that captures the specific ennui of life after “Mission Accomplished,” while acknowledging that it is no longer possible to experience collective dread without a self-conscious nod to crowdsourced behavioural memes of grieving. In Sweeney’s emotional landscape, we are simultaneously the pint-sized aggressor and the purple-eyed canine loosed from his chain. And the key to unlocking this symphony of visual information is, of course, the single blue burst of explosion that Katisyn has colored in completely, just below the “E” in “Mercury.” A crystalline blue spark. A perfect solitary tear.