Kimberly Locke was attending the 6th grade at Visionary School of the Arts in Florida when her art, “Sailing to the Finish Line” was selected as a Top Ten Winner. This means that out of thousands of art pieces submitted into the contest, Kimberly’s was selected as one of the ten best in her grade division. You can view her winning art by clicking here.
We asked Kimberly to share what helped inspire her art piece:
“I call this painting, ‘Sailing Towards the Finish Line.’ It is a self-portrait representing me working towards my goal of making it into the Olympics in 2024, which I hope to do with my twin sister, Caroline.
“I painted this painting of me sailing in my ‘Opti’, which is short for Optimist Dinghy. Optimist Dinghies are the largest class of racing sailboats in the world and are for kids between the ages of 8 and 15. Sometimes we have more than 300 kids competing in a regatta! I consider myself both an artist and an athlete. I think the Olympics should include art as well as sports because art involves the brain while sport involves the body and both together make a complete person.
“I originally painted this painting in acrylics and then created a separate digital art piece from my original to add different effects that I didn’t want to change on my original painting. My digital version earned me the honor of being a United States delegate to the Art Olympiad, an international competition drawing over one million entries from over 70 countries. When we arrived home from the Art Olympiad, which took place in Washington DC, I opened my mail to learn that my original painting is a Top Ten winner in North America of the Celebrating Art contest. I was so happy and amazed that different judges liked my painting so much!”
To learn more about our national art contests, visit www.celebratingart.com.
Celebrating Art 