After submission of 93 entries from high school students across the 14th Congressional District, judging for the 2016 Congressional Art Competition took place on April 15.  The winner of the 2016 Congressional Art Competition is Dickinson High School Freshman, Andy Jiang.

The schools included this year were Bay Area Christian School, Harmony Science Academy, Clear Springs High School, Clear Creek High School, West Brook High School, Dickinson High School, Brazosport High School, Nederland High School, and Sweeny High School. The judges for this year’s competition were Lynn Castle, the Executive Director at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas; Greg Buscheme, Jr., Owner of the Art Studio;  Summer Lydick, teacher and artist; and Herbert Kreutzer, teacher and artist.

“To me, art and photography tie in really closely,” said Andy Jiang. “Photography brings in the realism, the texture, while art manipulates that to bring even more emotion. Throughout high school, I'll try to perfect my skills, especially with color pencil, which was what I did the horse with. It was done with grayscale pencils with red and green added in for more depth. I spend a long time each day drawing. It can be tedious, but the results are well worth it. Most of my drawings aren't in the sketching category, which I would love to improve and spend more time upon. I plan to be more creative and implement more artsy things into my works instead of just copying a photograph. I would also love to learn to do photography in my spare time.”

“This year marked the third Congressional Art Competition for my office,” said Congressman Randy Weber (R-Friendswood). “We had more than 90 entrants this year. That is double the amount of entries from last year! It was a great success, and wonderful to see all the works of art submitted by the students. I am honored to represent such talent and enthusiasm from students across my district.”

Andy Jiang, this year’s winner of the Congressional Art Competition, will have his art featured in the Capitol for one year. In addition, there will be four pieces of art that will be featured in the Congressman’s district offices in Beaumont, Lake Jackson and League City.

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