Student’s work gets a place of honor
The African children Sarah Kimbley depicted in a drawing wouldn’t understand her if she spoke to them. They live in poverty in Tanzania and speak no English.
But the message behind the teen’s art wouldn’t be lost on them. Anyone can see it in the coal-colored eyes and gripping expressions that stare out of the framed drawing.
“You just look at them and, I don’t know, maybe want to help them in some way,” the 16-year-old said. “Like donate or adopt.”
Lots of people will have a chance to think about the drawing when it’s unveiled next month at the U.S. Capitol. It earned first place in the Congressional High School Art Competition and will hang in the building for one year, the second time in three years the honor has gone to a Coeur d’Alene High School student.
Kimbley will fly to Washington, D.C., with her mother and younger sister to attend the ceremony and join winners from other states for special tours of museums and other D.C. landmarks.
Kimbley’s drawing features six children from Moshi, Tanzania.
A young boy’s face dominates the page, with a worn expression; another young boy is below him, drawn smaller and clutching a cross. The faces of two others are to the left, and a girl with her hand on her hip and a finger to her mouth stands to the other side. In the bottom right corner is the white hand of an adult, gripped by a tiny black hand.
A family friend, Teresa Mathers, traveled to the country as a missionary. She asked Kimbley to make an art piece using photos of the children she met there. Kimbley based her drawing on a handful of the photos.
She knows a bit about some of the children featured, like their names or whether they’re infected with the AIDS virus that’s ravaged so much of their continent.
But the boy with the soulful eyes who takes up the biggest portion of the drawing is a mystery.
“Just one of the kids in the crowd,” Kimbley said.
It’s his eyes that set him apart.
“They kind of draw you in,” Kimbley said. “That’s why I had this one the biggest.”
Kimbley submitted the drawing as an assignment for one of her art classes with teacher Terri Leonard. She started working on it at the beginning of the school year and spent a couple months on it. She said she didn’t do much planning before delving into the drawing. “I just do it as I go,” she said. “Always turns out better that way.”
The class requires that students research the topics they’re depicting in their art. Writings about Africa fill pages of Kimbley’s class notebook, with copies of the photos Mathers gave her pasted alongside the text.
Leonard said national recognition of Kimbley’s work will benefit the teen for a long time.
“It’s going to allow her to stand out when she applies for colleges,” Leonard said.
Kimbley isn’t sure what she wants to study in college but said she’ll continue taking art classes.
She’s done other large projects, such as a drawing of Hawaiian hula dancers.
Her current work is a drawing about the Holocaust. An emaciated person resembling someone in a Nazi concentration camp dominates the middle of the page.
“I like to do stuff that kind of grabs people’s attention,” Kimbley said.