Community Corner
Whiz Kid: Grace Henderson
The Island Avenue mascot, gracing the front page of the website and destined to be on the yearbook, was created by third grader Grace Henderson.
Name: Grace Henderson
School: Island Avenue School
Grade: 3rd Grade
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Accomplishments: The mascot for the Island Avenue School 2011-12 school year has been chosen and the artist is third grader Grace Henderson. Grace’s drawing was chosen from among 59 other entries from IAS third and fourth graders. It portrays a very happy tiger, sporting a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo “I.A.S. rules!” In one hand the tiger carries an I.A.S. rule book and beside him, sitting amongst a garden of daisies, is a backpack with the words “I.A.S. Rocks” on it.
Key to Awesomeness: Grace credits her IAS art teachers and her mother for fostering her love of art. There are lots of art materials in her home and she enjoys sketching plants in her yard. Inspiration for her work comes from two famous artists, Pablo Picasso and Leonardo Da Vinci. She was introduced to them in her first grade art class.
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She explained that “Picasso does a lot of shapes and colors and Da Vinci does really good people and he uses dark colors.”
She recalls drawing a portrait in 1st grade – half the face in the style of Picasso, the other half in the style of Da Vinci. “I got really inspired when I looked at my portrait,” she said.
While Grace was “really surprised and really happy inside” that her drawing was chosen as the school mascot, as she walks by the bulletin board, covered with all 60 entries, she thinks everyone deserves credit for doing a good job! “I think there were a lot of good entries and I would have picked all of them if I was the art teacher!”
What set her artwork apart, however, was the fact that she added some background to her submission. “What really drew me to Grace’s (work) was that she didn’t have just the tiger, but she added details in the background,” said IAS art teacher Peggy Loehr.
“…I thought it would be really original if I did a background,” explained Grace.
The tiger’s happy face, says Grace, shows what a happy place IAS is to attend school. “It made a good mascot because it made Island look like it was a great place to be,” said Peggy.
“I made it happy because I use dark colors when I’m sad or tired and I use bright colors when I’m happy and excited,” Grace said. “I drew the tiger happy, because I was really happy when I drew it!”
