Featured Student Artist: Yasmyn Mansouri

Yasmyn is five years old and attends Elk Grove Montessori School in California.  Her art, “Roses in Vase“, was selected as a Top Ten Winner in our Fall 2012 national art contest.

Yasmyn loves to play with her 3-year-old sister Gianna, her baby brother Niegel, and her best friend Autumn.  Her favorite color is pink (which you can see reflected in her winning art).

“Roses in Vase” was inspired by the flowers at Yasmyn’s school.  Both Yasmyn and her grandmother love flowers, and Yasmyn really wanted to paint the ones at her school.

Yasmyn’s future goals include being a princess and continuing to paint.  She also wants to be a good older sister to her brother and sister.

To learn more about our national art contests, please visit www.CelebratingArt.com.

 

Featured Student Artist: Audrey Besse

Audrey was 11 years old when she created her art, “Baby Cougar Head“.  This painting was selected as a Top Ten Winner in our Spring 2012 national art contest for the 4-6 grade category.

Audrey lives in Dallas, Texas and has been creating art with different mediums all of her life.  Her painting was inspired by her Aunt Linda, who is a wildlife artist.  “For three years prior to my painting, I had been doing some hard Paint-by-Number sets.” Audrey explains, “Then I wanted something more challenging.  So Aunt Linda offered to show me how to do the same steps but from a blank gesso board.  We chose a 6 x 6 board to do my baby cougar head.”

In the future, Audrey plans to become an art teacher or own an art studio with one of her best friends.

To learn more about our national art contests, please visit www.CelebratingArt.com.

Corporate Sponsors Provide Support

Just a short announcement today.
For our art contest at CelebratingArt.com, we are pleased to announce that Blick Art Materials is now providing our awards.  This is a great sponsorship from a nationally recognized company, as we provide awards that help our teachers and students further their art.  It is also a great endorsement for our company.  We have never pursued sponsorship before and are excited about the possibilities.  

We thank all the teachers and students that believe in our mission of motivating and recording student work.  Having Blick Art Materials believe in us helps give us additional credibility.  As we pursue other endorsements from educational organizations for our writing and art contests, let us know if you have any ideas or connections.

Our contests have changed thousands of lives as students believe in themselves and become life long writers and artists.   What we do is important and we are glad to be here for you.

Expect Great Things and Great Things Happen

My son, who is in 8th grade, was in The Merchant of Venice this weekend.  Locally, we have a theater group for students in grades 4-12 that does three full-length Shakespeare plays a year.  The director could do simpler productions, but instead she stretches these young minds and expands their vocabulary and understanding of the world.

As teachers, it is comfortable to not stretch our students. I know teachers that give a simpler assignment because they feel too much of a challenge would be too difficult.  But having read student poetry and reviewed student art for our contests, I see the students who have been stretched and it is amazing to watch the growth.  When you have one excellent artist or writer in a classroom, then it is the child.  When you have an entire class of great writers and artists, it is the teacher.

We have our essay writing contest coming up Feb 15,  and our poetry and art contests the first week in April.  Just as my son can use the word “peevish” and understand the concept of the risk of loaning money as understood in The Merchant of Venice, I know that stretching him brought a great return.  Expect great things and great things happen.