By Joni Simon
Contributing Writer

It has been said that everyone has one talent. At Clark High School, artistic talent abounds. Seven out of 40 Clark students who entered the Texas Art Education Association’s Region 20 Visual Art Scholastic Event competition held Feb. 24 are going to the state art competition this year.

In a school Clark’s size, it isn’t difficult to find so many talented students, according to art instructor Mark Peavy.

“Just for sheer numbers, the odds are we’ll do pretty well,” he said. “But we also have a pretty strong program.”

Peavy says everyone is artistic because art is being human.

“We have different ways of expressing ourselves, and some people do it visually,” he said. “There’s art in everything we do. Any human endeavor is artistic because we’re creating, we’re problem solving. I think everyone does have his or her talent. It’s a matter of getting exposed to art and getting the materials in your hands from a young age to start learning how to use them to express yourself.”

The finalists agree their art endeavors did begin early in their lives.

Chloe Rhodes, 14, is the youngest student ever to advance to state.

“I’m just amazing I guess,” said the ninth grader, who also plays softball and basketball.

She says she’s taken art since sixth grade, but her interest in it began when she was still in elementary school. “I have a twin sister and when we were little, we were drawing our dog,” Rhodes said. “She drew the feet wrong, and we had to go outside to prove to her that the dog’s feet aren’t just sticks. I was right.”

Senior Jordan Buck, 17, who won for a pastel she entered, says she’s been drawing since she was 3 years old. Her first efforts included copying Winnie the Pooh and Piglet characters.

Everyone can learn to draw, according to Peavy, but there is one catch. “They have to really want to and they have to put time into it. It’s like everybody would like to sing or play the piano, but you can’t sit down at the piano and be good at it instantly. You have to have a desire to learn,”

Peavy said. “It’s the same with art. People say, ‘Oh, wow, that person was born with so much talent. I don’t agree with that. I think that when you’re a child, you’re interested in maybe visual images and you get a lot of materials from your parents and you start practicing sketching, whatever, and you get good at it.”

Senior Alexis Sachs had that parental support from the start. “My dad’s an artist. He taught sculpture at UTSA. Other than Peavy, he’s been the person,” said Sachs, who entered a self-portrait charcoal.

Andrea Fascinetto, 18, who also entered a self-portrait in charcoal, said she first began with fingerprinting in kindergarten.

“I guess I’ve always been in art classes,” Fascinetto said. “When I first moved to the United States, I wasn’t allowed to go to school for six months, so I just stayed home and drew all day.”

Fascinetto didn’t speak a word of English back then, but she could communicate with her drawings.

During the VASE event, students meet one on one with one of the jurors, who are professional artists or art educators. A five-minute limit is set, then the judges give the piece a score from one to four. All the artworks rated “four” are hung in the gymnasium for the afternoon, then, at the end of that exhibit, all the jurors pick what they think is the best of show. Those selected are sent to state.

Advancing to state from Clark are Buck, Fascinetto, Matthew Johnson, Zach Linge, Rhodes, Emily Royall and Sachs.

Not only did Clark host the largest Region 20 VASE competition ever, Northside Independent School District is advancing, with 41 pieces, the largest number of qualifiers to the State VASE on April 14 at the University of Houston Clear Lake.

“It’s sort of an understanding that everyone in Northside enters VASE,” Peavy said. “Dr. Sharon Chumbley, the division director, is very adamant about us participating.”