Cows grazing on endless fields of emerald and cowboys riding across the orange dust of their ranches; western inspired scenes imprinted on the canvas of young artists the weeks worth of hard dedication making way to the fruit of happy satisfaction of seeing their artworks on display. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is one of the largest rodeos in the world and while you are chowing down on your fried Oreos and turkey legs our art students participated in another activity dealing with their artistic abilities.
Rodeo art is more than simply drawing men in cowboy boots or cows on a field. It is an art competition with many school levels, high school being very highly competitive because of the types of prices.
“It works with [the] Houston Livestock and Rodeo show, it’s called the school art competition,” art teacher Victoria Satterwhite said. “There [are] different levels, there is an elementary school level, junior high level, and high school level. The high school level is highly competitive because there is lots of scholarship money as well as cash prizes for pieces that go to auction.”
There are many prizes ranging on how well the artwork does, this all depends on if the artwork places in the auction.
“First prize, if they grand champion, means anything from 40,000 to 60,000 dollars in cash,” Satterwhite said. “But the lower pieces that aren’t the grand champions usually make between two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half dollars per piece in the auction. [For] the scholarship any senior that gets into the show, gets an application.”
If you have an art class, artworks created can be submitted through your art teachers, but if you do not have an art class and wish to participate in this competition there are alternative ways to join.
“If you do not have an art teacher then you can just come talk to us and we can work on you coming after school to work on it.” Satterwhite said.
The Maverick Informer 