Winning artwork testament to girl’s love for brother

SPIRIT LAKE – Alysha Howard’s drawing stands out from the artwork entered in the heritage category of the Timberlake Creates art exhibition.

Hers isn’t a street scene or a lake scene or a wildlife scene.

It’s a montage.

A cross wrapped in barbed wire: The tattoo on her brother’s arm.

A fishing pole and an elk. A Confederate flag and a rifle. A can of Copenhagen.

A football and the number 70, his number when he played for the Timberlake Tigers.

His name in camouflage letters, like the clothing he liked to wear when he went in the woods. Always camouflage, Howard said, never blaze orange.

That’s what David Howard wore the day he was killed last fall, accidentally shot by a friend who mistook him for a deer while hunting near Bayview.

He was 22.

Alysha Howard, a 19-year-old senior at Lakeland’s Mountain View Alternative School, was encouraged to enter the art exhibition by her principal, who knew she liked to draw.

She started with her brother’s name and began sketching things that reminded her of her brother, who she describes as her best friend.

“I just thought everything on there should have been on there,” she said. His dog’s paw prints are in the drawing. A sketch of David as a boy. A crab representing his astrological sign, Cancer.

When she was done, Howard decided to enter her work in the art contest’s Heritage Category, which celebrates Spirit Lake’s history and culture.

Her brother was a part of both, she said.

He attended Lakeland schools his entire life. He played football and wrestled.

He was a jock, Howard said with a soft smile.

But he was also the person she said she could tell anything. He loved helping others.

And like many boys who grew up in the woods, he enjoyed the outdoors.

Fishing. Hunting. Guns. Chewing tobacco.

“He was a country boy,” she said. “He loved everything about it.”

Timberlake art teacher Carrie Scozzaro, who organized the exhibition, said Howard’s art was a “lovely tribute” to her brother’s memory.

“Alysha’s work is a testimony to two things: The power of art to express complex things and to provide healing to those who create the art and those who view it,” Scozzaro said. “I hope her work provides some closure for her and for the many people whose life David affected.”