Two Killeen ISD students will get a chance to see their original work on display at a museum in Austin during Texas Youth Art Month in March.
Union Grove Middle School eighth-grader Brooke Cox and Harker Heights High School senior Brianna Jubinville created original artwork selected for a student art exhibit at the Bullock Texas State History Museum scheduled March 2 to 29.
The students’ art teachers recommended their work for the annual museum showcase. Both students expressed surprise that their pieces made the cut for the annual statewide display.
Jubinville crafted a 3D sculpture of a zombie head popping out like a jack-in-the-box.
She titled the unique work “Zombie Out of the Box,” which was the result of a class project to rethink a classic toy and revise it with a modern twist, Harker Heights High School art teacher Julie Smith explained.
“I was really surprised,” Jubinville said of her selection for the art display. “I had never created a sculpture like that.”
The dry clay project required the Harker Heights senior to measure and cut wood. She used glue and nails to piece it together.
The versatile artist also entered paintings in the state’s annual Visual Art Scholastic Event competition.
One, a color pencil drawing, expresses the artists’ happy acceptance of life’s rich variety of joy, sadness, disgust and other emotions. The other, an acrylic painting shows the power of anger to destroy peace.
“I’m not the best at words, but I express my thoughts through art,” she said.
Union Grove eighth-grader Brooke Cox was also surprised her artwork received state attention. She found out she was the first KISD middle school student ever included for the museum display.
“It’s one of my biggest honors,” she said. “I haven’t been doing this very long, but I put my heart into it.”
Her piece, called “Monday,” is a neurograph, considered an art therapy piece that is the visual result of expressing one’s emotions onto a canvas.
It started as a class project and as Cox realized it was representing much of her life; she became more creative with cartoons and emojis.
“This piece looked chaotic, the visual sound it made. I thought about the busiest time of year. I have dance practice, art projects, school homework is given out on Monday, so I decided to call it Monday.”
The eighth-grader was working on art when her teacher, Jordan Love, told her about the honor she received.
“It was a big deal, and it took a while for the emotions to settle in,” she said.
She used markers and pencils, as well as watercolors on the detailed piece.
The passing of a family member she never knew helped generate the eighth-grader’s interest in art. She wanted to honor her family member and found art was a good way to express those emotions.
She praised her Union Grove art teacher for making class fun as well as classmates who she works and learns alongside.
Cox plans to attend the museum opening and is excited for the event – to see her work and to choose her outfit, she said.
The image at the top of this story is a composite of three photos. At left is Brianna Jubinville with two of her paintings in the VASE competition. In the center is Jubinville’s sculpture chosen for the Texas Youth Art Month display in Austin. At right is Brooke Cox superimposed in front of a neurographic drawing she created, also chosen for the statewide display.
