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| April 6, 2010 |
The World Newspaper
Coos Bay, OR |
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
|
Billie Brown describes the clay salmon she made at the Lighthouse School. Instead of being on display at the Coos Art Museum with other examples from her fourth-grade class, her salmon is in Washington, D.C., for a show. She and teacher Bittin Duggan will head to Washington to see the show in June. World Photo by Lou Sennick Buy this photoPreviousNextPhoto 1 of 3 COOS BAY -- When an elementary school class does an art project, most students produce works that look similar.
When Lighthouse School fourth-grader Billie Brown makes something in art class, it tends to come out looking different.
Different in a good way, art teacher Bittin Duggan said.
Billie's grandmother, Naedean Brown of North Bend, wasn't so sure at first.
'She did a self-portrait (in second grade) and I thought, 'She's got a personality disorder," Brown said. (Duggan) told me, 'It's like Picasso. She sees things differently.'"
Billie's unique vision has won her inclusion in a national exhibit for the second year in a row. Duggan will accompany the 9-year-old to Washington, D.C., in June as the Oregon representative at an arts festival launching the exhibit and others sponsored by VSA, an arts organization affiliated with Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
VSA promotes art opportunities for people with disabilities. Duggan's students at Lighthouse and North Bay Elementary School entered the group's All Kids Can Create contest. All students ages 5 to 15 are eligible to enter, but only children with disabilities qualify to be state representatives, Duggan said.
Billie qualified because she has dyslexia, as well as attention deficit disorder, her grandmother said.
This year, the theme of the contest is 'State of the Art," asking kids what is unique about their environments and how they fit into their communities. Billie made a ceramic sculpture of a salmon, titled 'Fishy."
It's a bit lumpy and not immediately recognizable, but it has its charms.
'When you look at it closely, it's really beautiful," Duggan said.
Because she finished it with class time to spare, Billie also made two worms and a smaller fish, using the same process of molding clay, scoring it, heating it to 1,900 degrees and painting it with a glaze that Duggan describes as like liquid glass. Billie often does extra work in art class.
'I like that I get to have fun and imagine what things look like," Billie said.
She also enjoys racing her buggy, the Red Rocket, as a junior dragster at Coos Bay Speedway, where her father, Bill Brown, also races.
But neither he nor the grandmother are able to make the trip to D.C. for health reasons, Naedean Brown said. Several Lighthouse teachers volunteered to go, but Billie chose Duggan.
They'll see Billie's art and that of the 50 other winners from the other states and the District of Columbia in the exhibit at Union Station, where it will be displayed from May 24 to June 12.
Billie, though, has other plans in mind for what she wants to do on the trip.
'Meet the president," she said.
(Entertainment Editor Chip Dombrowski can be reached by calling 541-269-1222, ext. 243, or by e-mailing cdombrowski@theworldlink.com.)
