Nucla High School’s Berlynn Tomlinson, a 10th grader, has won a state art award, and school officials as well as family members are expressing their congratulations.
Nucla art teacher Lisa Ross told the Forum there is an annual art competition held at the national art educator conference. This year, students were asked to redesign the state flag, based on the theme “healing through color.”
Tomlinson said the contest served as an assignment for the students in her class, and Ross encouraged them to approach the flag design in whatever way they wanted. For her flag design, she did a technique she’d worked with before, one that involves pouring watercolor onto paper, and then outlining that. Afterward, she used alcohol markers on the design. She said it took her three class periods to create her “healing through color” flag, and her teacher submitted it on Oct. 2.
Tomlinson found out two weeks ago she won the overall contest for the entire State of Colorado. Yes, she was surprised. Now her design will be made into a real flag that will be flown at the educators conference, this year happening in Louisville, KY, in March.
Needless to say Ross is proud.
“This is a huge honor, to represent the state of Colorado in such a capacity,” Ross said.
Tomlinson won a $150 gift card, to be used at a website that sells arts supplies, and the Nucla school got $250 to spend too. Ross said it was exciting to show that hard work can pay off in the art room.
Since she was little, Tomlinson has enjoyed making art. She especially likes painting and drawing, and in the last few years she taught herself to crochet. Her grandmother, Candace Tomlinson, used to be an art teacher in Nucla too; likely artistic talent runs in her genes.
She told the Forum she is more of an introvert, and she was a bit nervous about the attention and the obligation to talk about her work. Her mother, Amanda Tomlinson, said her daughter is quite humble.
“She doesn’t accept success very well, because she doesn’t like attention,” she said, “but she’s entirely too talented to stick with that.”
Tomlinson doesn’t boast about any of her achievements, but she’s not only good at art. She’s advanced in academics too. At just 14 years old, she’s halfway through her sophomore year and will graduate before she’s 17. She’s taking college classes already at Nucla High School, receiving dual credit, and she loves to read.
At this point, she’s not sure of her career plan. She said she will always do art as a hobby, but she’s interested in things like mental health, psychology and therapy.
Sara Bray, the school principal, is “extremely proud” of both Tomlinson and Ross.
“Berlynn is an excellent student and always pours her best into everything she does at school,” she said. “For her Colorado flag to be chosen out of all students in the entire state, just reinforces her work ethic. I'm so proud and grateful for Ms. Ross, that she was willing to present this project to her art classes and then give them the creativity, materials and time to complete some amazing projects. We are blessed to have both Berlynn and Ms. Ross in our schools.”
