Eighth grader Izzi Clark really likes cherries. So when she saw chokecherries on a list of possible options for a poster contest about native plants, she knew she’d found her inspiration.
“ I might have picked one up and showed them to my mom and asked if I could eat them,” said Clark, laughing. “Then I learned where to actually find them more through this contest.”
She’s one of three winners of the Wyoming Native Plant Society’s annual poster contest, for sixth through eighth graders around the state. This year’s theme was “Native Plants Benefit People.” The contest is part of a bigger effort to celebrate Native Plant Month in the state and across the country each April.
The Pinedale Middle School student has been making art since she was a toddler and is especially drawn to creating coyotes and stars in the night sky. She’s currently in two art classes with teacher Kandase Youtz, who’s helped her students participate in the contest since it first started three years ago.
“ Izzi researched all of her information and got all of her layouts, so I saw her very basic start,” said Youtz. “Then she took it home and has blown my mind with this.”
Clark’s chokecherry poster features a branch bursting with the fruit, next to fun facts about how the plant benefits humans and other critters: It has a high concentration of antioxidants and different vitamins. Birds, like the evening grosbeak and the pine siskin, eat the berry as a food source.
There’s also a gleaming glass jar of chokecherry jam, with two birds sitting on a golden lid.
“ When I saw [the jar], I was like, ‘Get out!’" said Youtz. “The shine that she had on there, and all of her tints and shades that she applied to the chokecherries throughout that whole piece, was just amazing.”
Clark drew inspiration for the layout from old Western art and posters from the early 2000s, which tend to have a specific style for how they display information.
“I've noticed that they all have a big thing with a bunch of detail on one side, and then they have a bunch of little drawings on the bottom and on the top, and then all the words are in that general area,” she said.
Clark also included a bibliography to give a nod to where she got her information. Posters for the contest were judged on three criteria: how clearly they illustrated how native plants benefit people, how accurately they depict the plants and creating a “visually appealing and engaging composition that demonstrates creativity, a well-composed layout, and effective use of color and technique.”
Creating something for the poster contest wasn’t an assignment for class. Youtz said it requires students to be independently motivated and self-directed, and to have the determination to see their vision through in the absence of any grading rubric.
“A lot of kids are always initially really excited to try because it's a free entry and winning money is always exciting for them,” she said. “But a lot of the time, they normally burn out a little bit on it, or they forget. You know, middle school.”
For Clark, being in the creative flow looks like getting really focused on the little details in a piece. She said making art can also be a way to help her calm down in a world that’s increasingly saturated with digital distractions.
“If there's like something stressful going on in my life, I'm able to use art to distract me from that,” she said. “The internet just kind of makes me more stressed.”
Youtz said many of her students have told her they aren’t a big fan of artificial intelligence and the ways it’s made them feel like it’s difficult to trust that what they’re seeing is real. But art class can be a welcome reprieve.
“They're just able to get some paper, get whatever material they want and be creative,” she said. “Even those kids that feel like they aren't creative, they can still go and make stuff and continue to grow in that aspect without the stunted idea of needing technology or needing ideas to be generated for them.”
When it comes to words of advice for other aspiring artists her age, Clark’s two cents were simple: Stick with it.
“Practice a lot,” she said. “That might be the number one thing you hear from everybody that does art. But practicing, even if you could just draw stick figures now, if you keep on drawing more advanced stick figures each day, it'll eventually get good.”
Stocktrail Elementary sixth grader Laney Hugo and her teacher Amanda Bailey, as well Casper Christian School seventh grader Naomi Vreeman and her teacher Jody Scott, were also selected as winners of the contest.
Honorable mentions and certificates went out to Greybull Middle School eighth grader Kenzie Blair and her teacher Michelle Stebner, Hanna Elementary School seventh grader Tylie Maughan and her teacher Kaitlyn Larson, and Douglas Middle School eighth graders Indiana Moon and Chloe Shadden and their teacher Emily Jensen.
Each winner received $250 and their posters will be on display at public libraries around the state from June through November.
