At Pike Liberal Arts School, art is an important part of the curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade. Ceil Sikes, headmaster, congratulated three PLAS students who were winners at the Alabama Independent School Association’s 2014 Art Show.
“Our students enjoy art and we are proud to display their artwork in the hallway,” Sikes said. “We had outstanding participation in our school art show and our winners did well at district. We congratulate all of those who participated. And, we are extremely proud of our students who placed in the AISA state art show, Cody Law, Rachel Riley and C.J. Allen.
Charlotte Walden, art teacher, also congratulated the state art show winners.
“They are good students and show a lot of promise,” she said. “I am so proud of them for what they have accomplished.”
Law a first grader, won first place in the collage/mix media category. Riley took second place honors in colored drawings in the 10-12 divisions and Allen took third in collage/mix media also in the senior division.
Law said he likes to draw and compete in contests. He entered the 2014 TroyFest Student Art competition.
“I drew a little ol’ owl on a branch but didn’t get anything,” Law said. “But it was fun anyway.
But Law did get “something” in the AISA art competition, a first place blue ribbon.
“And I was proud of that,” he said, with a smile. “I drew sunflowers. I thought about Vincent van Gogh and that he liked to draw sunflowers so I did, too.”
Law put his signature on the sunflowers he drew and his artwork made him a state winner.
For Riley, an 11th grader, art has been her lifelong hobby. Her sister is also an artist.
Riley said her parents are not artists but she believes that her talent was inherited from both.
“I have cousins on both sides of my family who are artists,” Riley said. “I entered the TroyFest art competition and won a couple of ribbons.  My colored drawing for the state competition is of Troye Sivan (an actor, singer, online personality from Australia) who is on YouTube. I like to draw people. All kinds of things.”
Riley plans to use her artistic talents in a planned career in graphic design.
Allen, who also competed in the senior division of the AISA art competition, entered a collage/mixed media piece and used a record as the canvas for an image of Bono, the singer/songwriter who writes almost all U2 lyrics.  Allen rubbed white paint acrylic paint onto the record to create the image of Bono.
Allen thought Bono’s image would work well with a collage that featured a vinyl. The judges of the AISA Art Contest evidently agreed.
Although Allen enjoys art he plans to study engineering in college and agreed that an artist’s eye will be beneficial in his chosen career.