Okaloosa County student wins nationwide Artist of the Week contest

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – An Okaloosa County 7th grader is celebrating a big win after being named Artsonia’s Artist of the Week, but she didn’t win with a traditional art piece.

Katie Hendricks, a student at Liza Jackson Preparatory School in Fort Walton Beach, told NewsChannel 7 she wasn’t expected to be acknowledged on such a wide scale when she submitted her piece “Sugar Crash” for a surrealism assignment in her digital art class at school.

“Before this, I did not consider myself an artistic person,” Hendricks said. “The day I found out, I was still sleeping and my mother… she walked in the room, and she told me I didn’t win… and then she said look for yourself. I saw it and she was like ‘Yeah, you won!’ It was a really great feeling.”

Hendrick’s digital art teacher, Jessica Graffeo, said it was amazing to see one of her students acknowledged for their hard work.

“A lot of people look at digital art, they think it’s something that they can easily get behind the computer and do it,” Graffeo said. “What they don’t realize is their students, or the people, the graphic artists, are actually spending days, weeks, even months editing a single photo. I was really pleased to find out that Katie had won the Artsonia award.”

Artsonia is a program where students’ art from across the country is uploaded into portfolios. Graffeo said this is the first year the digital art program at the school is using the program after requests from parents. Parents can purchase their child’s art on multiple different items, like Christmas ordainments, through the website.

Each week, twelve different art pieces in different age groups are selected and one is chosen as the winner of the week through votes.

Hendricks’ piece received 1,600 thousand votes.

“She is the only student out of this entire area or even the state of Florida that week to win the competition,” Graffeo said.

Graffeo said using technology to make art and tap into students’ creative sides is beneficial for their futures and development.

“Learning these basic foundational skills, they can carry with them when they go into high school or even a trade program,” Graffeo said. “Sometimes they discover another creative passion that it’s just underlying and undiscovered.”

Through developing new creative skills and opening outlets for students to express themselves, they are able to grow.

“I think I’ve definitely grown the skills a lot and I’ve learned that I can be an artistic person,” Hendricks said.

To learn more about the Artsonia program, click here.

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