It’s never too early to begin creating art.
Last month, the Tallapoosa County Board of Education hosted a district-wide art contest with two Reeltown students being named the winners: Alyssa Butler, eighth grade and MaryAnn Fuller, fourth grade. Both of these students had their pieces sent on to the state round for the Alabama Association of School Boards’ 75th Student Art Contest.
Butler has previously won in a school-wide art contest, which Reeltown High School hosted for Black History Month.
“I was very excited about it,” Alyssa said of this school board art contest. “I came in here and (Principal Audrey Stockdale) asked me, ‘Is it possible you can do the art contest?’ She told me what it was for and I said, ‘Heck yeah I’ll do it.”
Alyssa submitted a painting in school colors with RHS over top and an inspirational quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“When I was doing this piece, at first I was very stressed out about it,” Alyssa said. “And everyone probably says they were very stressed about it, but I was. I was angry at it. I was frustrated. I was ready to give up, like how I did the last one, it just started to make a picture and I started doing it over and over again. Eventually it turned out to be something beautiful.”
Alyssa said her stepmom was the one who introduced her to art and, on top of that, her grandmother would give her canvas and paints. One day she decided to try it and now it’s something she is drawn to as a way to experiment and release her creativity.
Alyssa largely focuses on painting, although she has started on a project for her English class with making a sculpture out of Styrofoam. Butler said that it has been a fun process so she might be branching into some other media soon.
Alyssa has tried out some other painting techniques as well and has recently started dot painting. She said that’s one of her favorite things to do outside of school along with spending time with her family.
While art is a passion, Alyssa’s favorite subject is science, and she would like to attend University of Florida or Auburn University after high school to become an entomologist or a botanist.
On the elementary side, MaryAnn submitted a self-portrait.
“I just felt confident about my art,” MaryAnn said of submitting her piece. “And I knew I wouldn’t feel bad even if I lost because I tried.”
MaryAnn got into art from watching her brother, 16, and sister, 19. MaryAnn said her sister would draw and sketch. Her sister taught her the basics and then she figured out the rest along the way.
MaryAnn recently found an old sketchbook of her sisters and that’s become one of the things she enjoys doing after school — drawing in the sketchbook. But she said she will also draw in her notebooks. Along with drawing, she enjoys swinging.
While MaryAnn wants to be an artist when she grows up, her favorite school subjects are science and social studies and she likes reading too.
