DeBakey HS art teacher Neda Khan poses with student Tam Ngo and her winning design.
This year the Houston Independent School District honored the artistic talent of its students by selecting three finalists’ artwork for the 2013 HISD Holiday Greeting Card. The winners were Adrian Pizarro from Park Place Elementary School, Amy Vaughan from Johnston Middle School and Tam Ngo from DeBakey High School for Health Professions.
“This is one of my favorite events of the year as we have the opportunity to recognize the amazing talent of our students,” HISD Chief of Business and Community Relations Dr. Michele Pola said. “We are very grateful for all the art teachers who support their students in their creativity.”
Thirty-two talented student artists from around the district were accompanied by their families, art teachers, and principals as they were honored today during the 10th annual HISD Holiday Greeting Card event.
Third-time finalist Tam Ngo couldn’t believe her design featuring a close-up of two red cardinals with a vibrant green backdrop made her a winner today.
“It’s great to finally win! I spent a whole week on it and had the support and encouragement of my art teacher,” said Ngo, a junior at DeBakey, as she described how her inspiration came from seeing cardinals in a lot of the holiday decorations. “I thought they were beautiful so I wanted to zoom in on the image of the two cardinals to resemble a specific moment in time of love and peace.”
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Johnston MS art teacher Christine Gutierrez poses with student Amy Vaughn and her winning design.
The middle schools’ winner Amy Vaughan said her artistic talent was discovered when she was just four years old but it wasn’t until this year that she submitted her artwork to the HISD Holiday Card contest. Her winning piece featured a globe in the shape of an ornament with the word ‘peace’ above it.
“The whole world celebrates the holidays so I made it into a globe,” said Vaughan, a seventh-grader at Johnston Middle School. “I chose to make the globe into the shape of an ornament since that is a common decoration used by everyone. It just fit perfectly.”
The winner for the elementary schools was fourth-grader Adrian Pizarro from Park Place Elementary whose inspiration came from his vision of a perfect Christmas morning with lots of snow, Christmas trees, gifts and a tall snowman.
Park Place ES art teacher Kathleen McAuliffe poses with student Adrian Pizarro and his winning design.
“My art teacher said I had a good chance at winning,” said Pizarro. “I wanted to show what a perfect Christmas should look like even thought it doesn’t snow here.”
Pizarro’s art teacher, Kathleen McAuliffe, was also Ngo‘s art teacher when she was in elementary school.
“Park Place always makes it to the finals and today we had two winners, a current and a former student,” said McAuliffe. “Their success is a result of their hard work and their amazing creativity.”
All finalists received holiday greeting cards featuring their artwork to give to family and friends this holiday season. To purchase any of the finalists’ cards, click here.
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