Best In Show

Peanut began to show an interest in art when she was seven or eight years old. She started by tracing line art drawings that we would print out for her. She then progressed to doing more and more complex art of her own, mostly using pencils, pens and markers. As she matured as an artist, she began working with paints, pastels, charcoal, mixed media nod even a little bit of sculpting has been thrown in for good measure. As parents who are not artistic ourselves, we have just stepped back and watched in wonder as she has continued down this path. This type of pursuit of an interest is precisely why we chose to homeschool in the first place and we have provided her with the space and time to go where it will lead her.

And so here we are, six years into the “hobby” and I don’t think we can still call it a hobby any longer. She “arts” every single day and continues to push herself to try new techniques, methods and styles. Will this lead to a high paying career one day? I don’t know and I don’t really care at this point. Because what art and her pursuit of it has done is teach her to be disciplined, to be courageous and to put herself out there in ways that we never envisioned.

She has been a part of a homeschool art studio for about a year now and they submitted pieces to be judged as part of the 40th Annual Lubbock Arts Festival. They were competing with more than 50 local area elementary, middle and high schools and as a group, they took home three Honorable Mentions and one Best in Show. That Best in Show award went to our Peanut. She submitted a painting that she did in acrylic paint called :A Deer in a Forest.”

We are ecstatic for her. Her piece was one of the few paintings that was submitted and that really helped her stand out among all the other artists. She showed courage to work in suck an unforgiving medium and to put it out there to be judged. Those things are not easy for eighth grade girls and we couldn’t be more proud of her.