Wasilla student earns art award

Frontiersman

A Wasilla High School art student recently got some unexpected news - her painting was selected as one of five Order of Merit award winners at the national level of the PTA Reflections program.

Not bad for her first painting.

&#8220It was the first painting I've really done,” said Marina Angel. &#8220I was just hoping to place at the regional level, honestly.”

She did a bit better than that. Her painting of two young students - one black, one white, along with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. - won the regional competition and then won at the state level. For winning one of the five Order of Merit awards, Angel will receive a silver plated medallion and a certificate.

Angel said she enjoys art and particularly her art class at WHS, but this was the first project she ever thought to enter in a competition.

&#8220I paint all the time in my sketchbook, and I've been drawing since I was a kid, but I've never done it like this before,” she said. &#8220I'd like to be second-grade teacher, and maybe incorporate art into the class.”

While she is excited to have won, she said there was another person whose excitement surpassed her own.

&#8220My art teacher, Mrs. Stewart, called me twice that day. I think she was more excited than I was. She's never had a student get picked for nationals,” Angel said.

The Reflections program is run by the national and local PTA organizations as a way to get students interested in art.

There are several categories students can compete in, including music, painting, photography and drawing.

Angel competed in the local competition - which was on display at the Dorothy G. Page Museum - as a school project. Other students submit art outside of their regular class projects.

Eventually, Angel's work can be seen at the organization's Web site, www.pta.org.

As of Monday morning, the 2006 winners were not on the site, however.