Junior Makayla Reavis is a quiet student, but her art speaks volumes.

She joined her first art studio known as “Lisa’s Art Studio” when she was 8, and was in that for about nine years before Lisa retired. From there, Reavis just stuck to doing art by herself.

Junior Sydney Braithwaite has been Reavis friend and she has really seen the progression of her artwork.

“She has always been more confident in her work, more detail, pushing towards being more creative with her work,” Braithwaite said. “She started drawing really good simple things and now she is drawing very realistically like drawing.”

Throughout this time, Reavis didn’t know what kind of artist she was. It wasn’t until she took some high school art classes where she found her style.

“My favorite art class was Drawing because it taught me a lot more about my style,” Reavis said. “It showed me a different way to draw in a way where I could express myself more, and draw more realistically.”

Reavis has used these art skills throughout her high school career. She started to get noticed by teachers. One of the teachers that really has seen Reavis through her high school career is art teacher Jennifer Hoss-Miller.

“Makayla is a extremely talented individual,” Hoss-Miller said. “I like having her in class because she never really lets herself down, and with ideas, she has multiple ready to go so she is always prepared.”

When University of Nebraska-Lincoln Young Artist Award competition came up where teachers at their school will nominate three students to compete. Reavis was one of them.

“I was surprised and excited when I first saw I was nominated for this award,” Reavis said. “I felt I have really given it my all in my high school art classes, and it seemed my work paid off.

For the competition she drew a picture of Lewis river in Yellowstone Stone Park. Yellowstone Park is one of the most breathtaking places Reavis has visited. She doesn’t go to up to north a lot but when she does going to Yellowstone is a must, and is just memorable place in her mind.

“I chose to do a graphite drawing of Yellowstone because landscapes are my favorite subject to draw,” Reavis said. “I took the photograph and it gave me inspiration for this piece of art.”

Reavis is one of the three students from our school to be nominated. The winners of the awards will be announced April 4, 2018.

“It would mean the world to me if I won,” Reavis said. “I have always wanted to have my art out there and if I were to win it would give me more confidence it my art.”

There are eight different categories for this award. Reavis chose visual art because drawing is one of her strengths. They pick a pretty good number of winners from each category going as far as twenty award recipients. Winners will get to tour University of Nebraska-Lincoln art facilities with a award ceremony at then end winning the award and a special gift. This is a competition strictly to juniors so this is Reavis only chance to win and she is hoping she can do just that.