Being an artist takes a steady hand and a great imagination. New Boston ISD has a great artist in the class of 2023 in local artist, Lexie Farland.
Farland entered one painting and one sculpture in the state Visual Arts Scholastic Event otherwise known as VASE. To get to the state VASE event you must first go through two other rounds of judging. Lexie advanced to state receiving two medals, one for each piece while also having one of her art pieces receiving a perfect score.
To understand her artistic background you have to go back to when she was a small baby. Lexie says, “I do not remember when I first started drawing or coloring because my mom tells me that when I was a baby I found a pack of crayons, made one mark, and I have been drawing or coloring ever since. I continued to draw and color for a long time then one day I just stopped doing it.”
When looking at her art you would never guess that she stopped, but when asked when she got back into it she answered, “I got back into painting and drawing about a little over a year ago.” Ever since then she has been practicing her art all the time. She even uses different types of mediums. She says “My favorite to use has to be charcoal and graphite. I have done some watercolor painting before, and it is really difficult. I am starting to go into oil painting.”
When asked about the story behind the two award winning pieces she states, “The painting comes from a portrait of my great grandfather, and a lot of men in my family have served in the military. So, when I was painting, I wanted to have a reflection of what the average soldier would see. I wanted to show that even in older age they still remember the things that they went through. The sculpture piece was my first sculpture I had ever done, and it is called ‘Coming Home’. It went right along with my painting. I wanted to make it look like a soldier was coming off the battlefield into his house.”
An artist usually has something that drives them to do what they do and Lexie is no different, “My grandfather used to draw a lot of horses, and I used to envy him for being able to draw a horse so well. Well one day he had picked me up from school and later that day we sat down at the kitchen table and he taught me how to draw a horse head. Even today I can still draw that same horse head.”
While winning these awards for her art, when asked about her future as an artist she answered, “At the moment it is just a hobby for me. If art is to take me somewhere, I will go with it, but if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.”
