Throughout this school year, Elkhorn North’s art classes work diligently to create stunning pieces that are submitted to be judged

The pieces are submitted to the Scholastic Art Competition. Students take photos of their work and upload them with a description to the scholastic website. Around 3,000 pieces are submitted every year, and 1,000 are chosen for display in the statewide show held at the Teacher Administrative Center in Omaha.

Elkhorn North students took home a plethora of awards, but one artist stood out amongst the crowd.

Senior Erica Zhang was awarded a silver key for painting, as well as seven Gold Keys for her 2D work. She submitted a portfolio of her work from the past four years, and a piece of that portfolio was nominated by a panel along with four other art pieces from submissions across the state. Zhang was ultimately chosen to represent the whole state nationally.

Zhang also won the Scholastic American Visions award, which is not only the first in school history, but district history.

Art teacher Madeline Rosonke has seen the progress and success of Zhang for her entire high school career.

“Erica sees color and shape differently than most students,” Rosonke said. “She paints in a freeing way where she’s not held down by something needing to look hyper realistic.”

Zhang has taken art classes all four years of high school, but she has loved art for a lot longer than that.

“Erica doesn’t paint to impress other people or for a good grade, she paints like she has to,” Zhang said. “The ideas pour out of her and she wants to see them come alive.

Zhang’s peers have taken notice of her dedication and work ethic, and it pushes them to be better.

“Watching her work inspired me to push myself,” said senior artist Reed Heaton. “She gave all of us someone to model ourselves after, a sort of perfect example.”