Student art hangs in nation’s capitol
Art class can be more than just an elective for some students as
17-year-old San Benito High School artist Alyssa Yeager learned
when she traveled to Washington, D.C. recently. Yeager won first
place in District 17 for the national Congressional Art Competition
and was invited to the nation’s capitol to meet local Congressman
Sam Farr.
Student art hangs in nation’s capitol
Art class can be more than just an elective for some students as 17-year-old San Benito High School artist Alyssa Yeager learned when she traveled to Washington, D.C. recently. Yeager won first place in District 17 for the national Congressional Art Competition and was invited to the nation’s capitol to meet local Congressman Sam Farr.
Each school within District 17 is allowed to enter just three pieces and this year seven high schools competed for the top prize. Yeager won and her piece, “Bend It Like Beckett,” will hang in the Capitol building in D.C. for the year. Her piece is done in a medium called conte, which is a material like charcoal that has reddish brown hues.
“It’s similar to charcoal, but it gives more of an ancient look,” Yeager said.
For her piece, she chose a picture of an elderly man she saw in a magazine, though she drew the image freehand.
“Older people are easier to work with because you can distort [the image], add wrinkles,” Yeager said.
In her artwork, the high school girl, who will be a senior in the fall, likes to play with dark and lightness in her projects. The dark-haired, dark-eyed girl spoke with precision as she talked about how she first got into art.
“I always loved to paint,” Yeager said. “But I didn’t have natural skills so I wanted to improve.”
She took her first art class when she entered high school three years ago. Before that Yeager’s exposure to art had mostly been in art galleries in San Jose and other cities.
Before entering the congressional competition, she had just entered in the local county fair and other local competitions. Yeager credited her teacher John Robrock with encouraging her to submit her piece.
“He’s been a good teacher. He’s a bit nonchalant but his students are becoming more prominent,” Yeager said. “Since he’s been at the school students have begun to win competitions. If they don’t want to enter, he takes the initiative.”
The Congressional art competition is in its 26th year and is known as “An Artistic Discovery.” It started out of the Congressional Arts Caucus, of which Farr is a member, and is open to students in any participating district.
“We don’t have a theme,” said Bertha Muñoz, Farr’s congressional aide who helped to coordinate the contest this year. “It’s whatever they want, but we only allow them to submit three from each school.”
The judging panel varies each year and the judges choose different criteria.
“It comes down to the originalness of the piece,” Muñoz said.”
One of the other benefits of the program is that the Savannah College of Art awards a scholarship for students to continue studying arts.
“I didn’t know how big it was until I spoke with Congressman Sam Farr,” Yeager said.
Yeager, her mother Christina Santos, and her mother’s best friend left for D.C. June 25 and stayed through July 1.
“Alyssa’s painting is terrific,” Farr said. “She’s an excellent artist and a fantastic example of her classmates.”
Yeager spent plenty of time with Farr as they attended the reception and met in his office in the capitol.
“Art is such an important part of a child’s education,” he said. “One of the foundations of scientific discovery is artistic creativity. We must support art programs for our children, both for the wonderful work they create and for the benefits that come from a well-rounded education.”
Farr shared with Yeager some of his own struggles as a student with dyslexia and said he was never a very good artist, she said. While in the capitol, Yeager toured the White House, visited monuments and stopped at plenty of museums, such as the Smithsonian.
When she walked through the capitol to the reception for the winning artists, she said felt humbled by the number of art pieces hanging around her own piece.
“The entire tunnel area had a big array of other pieces,” she said. “Mine paled in comparison because everything else had so much color.”
Still Yeager, who will be a senior at San Benito High School in the fall, will continue to study art during her last year of school and plans to continue with her studies into college.
“I have my own style,” she said. “I don’t expect to be prominent or well known, but I will continue because I enjoy it. I am interested in art history or being an art professor.”
