Four art students received awards at the district high school art show. Senior Abraham Ramirez Martinez won the principal choice award, senior Nam Tran won third in sculpture, senior Elliot Wallace won art director’s award and junior Kimberly Arellano won third place in the drawing category. The art gallery held an opening ceremony on Feb. 24 and ends on March 18 at the Lewisville Grand Theater. 

Each student had a different experience with how their art piece was shown at the gallery. Ramirez Martinez’s uncle asked him to draw a skull he found at his ranch. 

“My teacher took advantage and said ‘You should turn that in,’” Ramirez Martinez said. “Trying to improve myself, I chose to allow it, and I turned it in and I won an award.”

For the inspiration of Arellano’s work, she had a collection of realism drawings of Mexican womens’ struggles. Arellano’s award winning art work was of an immigrant woman at the border after being deported.

“When I was younger, I would always have this fear of my mom getting deported,” Arellano said. “That’s the thing that motivated me to take deportation into that specific artwork.”

Tran’s art piece wasn’t on paper, but a sculpture of a star book from his favorite game, “Genshin Impact.“

“I went through a lot of pain by pressing down and cutting out each piece individually,” Tran said. 

The art students felt happy for their work to be displayed in the gallery, and even though some haven’t seen them in person at the gallery, they still felt honored.

“I was really proud, but I was still skeptical, I was like ‘Really, that one?’” Arellano said.