Two well-deserving seniors, Bethany Holden and Mikey LeVar, have a unique opportunity to display their artwork at the St. Louis Artist’s Guild for the 2018 Young Artists Showcase where they each have a piece featured.

“Mr. Sarra encourages his students to enter anything and everything, so he brought this competition to my attention,” said Holden.

Both Holden and LeVar had a piece chosen to display out of the large pool of St. Louis applicants.

“I encourage all of my advanced students to exhibit their work, and eight students applied for this show.  Bethany and Mikey were two of 125 students who had work accepted from over 300 applicants, so this is a tribute to their work,” said John Sarra, art teacher.

Holden’s and LeVar’s work has the potential to win awards and even scholarships.

“My piece is a watercolor painting of the Louvre, the art museum in France,” said Holden. A future architect, Holden has a passion for famous buildings.

“My piece was a collage of a frog and a trash can with a colorful monoprint background. I didn’t really have much of an inspiration, so I was trying out a number of new techniques, and they came together very nicely,” said LeVar.

Both students worked independently on their artwork.

“It was a very personal exploration of media and content. Most students stop too soon because they are afraid that they will ruin the first good thing that they see, but the key to success is to take risks and to build complexity into the work. To have that work acknowledged by a stranger (the juror for the exhibition) is significant, but I was already proud of them,” said Sarra.

Holden and LeVar are the first Westminster art students with work displayed at the Young Artist’s Showcase.

“This is a huge encouragement to better my skills and keep showing my work,” said Holden.

According to their website, the 2018 Young Artists Showcase “is a juried, all-media exhibition of artwork created by high school students between 15 and 19 years old residing within 150 miles of the St. Louis Artists Guild.”

This is LeVar’s first time with artwork displayed at an exhibition.

“It was very cool to see my own work on display at a gallery, and I’ll be interested in entering artwork in other exhibitions,” said LeVar.

Not her first exhibition, Holden has had work displayed at Missouri Baptist University in the past.