Postcards: (l) Savannah Rosales placed 1st in 10th grade and (r) Jada Moore placed 2nd in 9th grade
Youth artistic talent continues to flourish and garner recognition through hard work and participation in an annual postcard contest.
Two Thomas County Central High School art students placed in the annual Plains, Peanuts and a President postcard contest. Sophomore Savannah Rosales won first place in the 10th grade division, and freshman Jada Moore won second place in the ninth grade division.
“I feel proud of being placed in first,” Savannah Rosales said. “It means the absolute world to me to win and be congratulated.”
Jada Moore said placing is “an honor,” and one she did not expect.
“I wasn’t at all expecting to place at any level, especially with the amount of people that entered,” she said. “Winning second is more of an honor than anything.”
The contest is sponsored by the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site (NHS) Education Program. This year’s theme was "Fluttering through Plains: Butterflies and Peanuts" and there were more than 8,000 entries. Three winners were selected from each grade, K-12.
According to program spokesperson Annette Wise, the contest announcement was posted on the website, www.jimmycarter.info, in July. Entries had to include information about the town of Plains, or the Carters, and at least one peanut and one butterfly.
Rosales used color pencils and a sharpie for her piece “to bring out the vibrant colors.” She also used an idea she and a classmate talked about, of “a peanut flying through the air.”
“I saw the title of the contest and immediately thought of a barn with a tractor, fences, peanuts, and fields of plains,” Rosales said. “I wanted my postcard to look creative and like you’re in the South.”
Moore drew a butterfly in front of a jar of peanut butter. She got creative with the wings.
“I designed them with a kind of gradient shading with the words ‘Fluttering through Plains’ on them,” Moore said. “The postcard was first drawn as a sketch and then traced over a light table. I used colored pencils in mine and tried not to use traditional colors, but to use different shades.”
Winners met in Plains, the program’s home base, on Saturday, Sept. 26. There, they received a medal and signed certificate from former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.
TCCHS Art teacher Jocelyn Rivard said the school appreciates the recognition and students are excited when they place in the contest.
“Students are so excited when they find out that they were selected from among thousands of entries from across Georgia each year,” she said. “Students who attend the ceremony enjoy meeting Mr. Carter and getting a photo with him.”
Rosales enjoyed meeting Carter and receiving her award from him.
“He said to me that he loved the lots of colors in this artwork,” she said.
Rivard said contest participation allows her students to expand both their creative ability and their knowledge of state history.
“Students participate in this contest every year as it’s a real-life application of using and improving their art skills,” Rivard said. “They also learn about Georgia’s only president, Jimmy Carter, who comes from a peanut farming family. They are impressed that he worked hard, went to college, and rose to be president.”
Participation in contests like this one, she continued, “allows students to create a graphic design project that combines type design with imagery.” It also challenges the students.
“Requirements like legible titles, creative concepts, quality use of color, and deadlines create a real-world scenario,” she said. “The postcard theme changes every year, which always provides unique problem-solving. It is also a challenge for students to create a high quality artwork on such a small format as the postcard.”
Rosales and Moore feel the experience has made them better artists.
Moore said Rivard “really challenges our creativity and encourages us to be diverse in our art.” The contest was one way to do that.
“I’ve learned different ways of becoming a more efficient artist, not only during this experience but in my art class as a whole,” she said.
Rosales said the experience taught her about believing in her own abilities.
“It helped me to become a better artist by teaching me to believe in my artwork, no matter how hard it was to create,” she said.