Teens’ artwork shown in D.C.

4 represent state, join 397 others

— U.S. Capitol visitors with an eye for art can view American masterpieces such as John Trumbull’s Signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis that are lining the building’s dome. And for the next year, artwork by four young Arkansans also will hang in the Capitol.

The more than 3 million annual Capitol visitors will be treated to Dallin Duke’s Me and Mine, Melanie Herring’s My Palette for this Painting, Langley Osborn’s Overseas Sweetheart and Abby Reimer’s To Find the Colors.

The four Arkansas artists were winners of the 31st annual Congressional Art Competition. Their four paintings were hung this week in a hallway that connects the Capitol with the House office building complex. The Arkansans’ works joined 397 other paintings, drawings and photographs by students from most of the nation’s congressional districts.

“You won’t be able to put a price tag on them, but a lot of people will see your artwork,” U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin told the winners at a reception in the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday. “This is one of the best art museums in America.”

Griffin, an Arkansas Republican, is co-chairman of the competition. The other co-chairman, U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke, D-Mich., was a painting major as an undergraduate at Cornell University before earning his law degree at Georgetown University.

Clarke said his mother used to ask him what hewas going to do with a degree in fine art.

“I’m going to create a new world,” he said he told her.

Clarke told the students at Wednesday’s gathering that as artists, they have a special gift of vision.

“It’s that kind of vision that can bring this world out of a war,” he said.

Joining Griffin and Clarke at the reception were Mitch and Elizabeth Breitweiser, a husband and wife who met as art students at Harding University in Searcy and teamed up to illustrate Marvel Comics characters, including Captain America, Iron Man and the Hulk, at their Little Rock studio.

Mitch Breitweiser told the group that he almost gave up being an artist. He had a hard time catching a break, he said, but his creative drivesustained him.

“It is a difficult path to walk, the artist’s path,” he said. “But you can create magnificent things from nothing. You can invent your own life.”

Each congressional district is in charge of selecting an artist to represent it in the U.S. Capitol.

Duke, 17, a senior at Vilonia High School, was selected from among 55 artists in Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District.

His entry was a watercolor self-portrait, showing half of his face, with a city streetscape in the background. Packed into the background are pen-andink doodles. The small pictures fit together like a puzzle and add another illustrative dimension to the painting.

“I call it soup,” Duke said, referring to the doodles.

Herring was first among 29 submissions in the 4th Congressional District. She graduated from Woodlawn High School in Rison thisspring and has been accepted at Ouachita Baptist University this fall, where she plans to double-major in art, and dietetics and nutrition.

Her painting was an extreme close-up of red, yellow and blue paint squeezed out of paint tubes and mixing on a palette.

“Everyone usually tries to look at the big things,” she said. “I like to focus on the small, tiny details. It makes things pop.”

Osborn was first among 40 submissions in the 1st Congressional District.

Osborn, 18, graduated this spring from Jonesboro High School and plans to attend Memphis College of Art in the fall.

Her piece was part of a 12-part series of oil paintings depicting World War II themes. The painting shows three pairs of servicemen, depicted as rabbits, squirrels and minks.

“I feel honored to be a part of this,” she said.

Reimer, a 17-year-old who will be a senior in the fall at Siloam Springs High School, was picked from among 33 submissions in the 3rd Congressional District.

She said To Find the Colors was only the second piece she’s ever painted. The small painting is set in an ornate frame and depicts a couple walking together, away from the viewer, through a grayish streetscape.

Surrounding the couple, orange and yellow lights are ablaze, whipped into a rich texture by Reimer’s strokes in oil.

Reimer said the couple is looking for happiness, but is full of despair. The bright lights that surround the couple’s drab surroundings represent hope that is within their reach.

“If you look in life,” Reimer said, “there’s all sorts of happiness and hope. You just have to look for it.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/21/2012

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