Reflections Contest brings out the artists in schools

Rebecca Fox came flying by the table minutes before Carson High School's lunch period ended Tuesday and discovered her portrait of Georgia O'Keefe won a first-place award in the fine arts category of the school's Reflections Contest, and she, $100.

"It's, I don't know, I'm excited," she sputtered.

The Carson High School sophomore spent two hours a day for a week sketching what she called a picture of O'Keefe "being old" from a book about the New Mexico artist.

She had no idea she would win first place and was completely surprised with the ribbon.

"There are so many better artists than I," she said.

Second-place winners in the contest won $75 and third-place winners received $50. The parent-teacher association at Carson High and the Nevada Appeal supplied award money for the winning pieces.

Carson High School parent Lynne Heller, who organized the contest this year at the school, is in charge of sending the winning pieces to Las Vegas by Feb. 4. The Reflections Contest is a national contest sponsored by the National Parent-Teacher Association.

"The talent level is tremendous," Heller said. "I just would love to see more participation."

More than 25 students participated. In the photography category, Shanna Eng won first place, Joel Williams took second and Kellen Dale took third. In visual arts, Fox won first, Shelby Moulden won second and Jennifer Diamond won third. In literature, Alex Craig won first, Allison Foltz won second and Sarah Stadler took third. In the music category, with just one entry, Harris Heller won first.

The theme of this year's Reflections Contest was "A Different Kind of Hero."

Eng's first-place photo showed a moldy orange peel sitting atop a textbook open to a description about penicillin.

"I was thinking that mold saves a lot of people's lives because penicillin is developed from mold," she said.

Craig's first-place literature piece talks about his hero, a gardener who killed a snake that could have attacked and injured him when he lived in Zambia.

"If it had bitten me, I could've been in danger of dying," he said.

Harris' was the only entry in musical composition.

"I kind of hoped there would be more entries to see what happened," he said. "I wrote this for two guitar parts, a drum part and a vocal part. I was going to build in some bass on a synthesizer but I ran out of time."

Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.