North Texas students soar in national art contest

by Staff of Texas Parks & Wildlife

Photo not of winning art.

Students from Dream Art Academy in Carrollton and Richland High School swept six of the top 12 places in the Texas Junior Duck Stamp competition, including Best of Show.

All 12 winning pieces of artwork will be on display at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens until January 17, 2010.

The Best of Show award, which will advance to the national competition, went to 17-year-old Min Cho of Carrollton for her color pencil and acrylic rendering of a spectacled eider.

Other Dream Art Academy winners included Haven Chung, 11; Jacqueline Oh, 10; Monica Kwon, 14; and Gene Park, 8.

Kelli Kimble, 17, of Richland High School, was also a first-place winner in her age category for her color pencil drawing of a wood duck.

Other Texas winners included Haneul Seo, 15, who attends Memorial High School in Spring Branch; Clay Woodcock, 9, from the Paratore School of Art, Santa Fe, Texas; Yelita Garcia, 14, from Lucia Middle School, Brownsville; Lauren Martinez, 9, Our Lady of Fatima, Texas City; Alex Clark, 16, Pasadena Memorial High School, Houston; and Carlos Garcia, 12, Lucio Middle School, Brownsville.

The Junior Duck Stamp program is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an educational program designed to teach wetlands and waterfowl conservation to students in kindergarten through high school. The contest is open to all students, whether attending public, private, or home schools.