Kendra Duevel, daughter of Chad and Lorie Duevel was named Royalton High School's January Artist of the Month. Duevel has three siblings in school. While only a Freshman, she was surprised to find out that she not only could compete with Art students at the high school level, but also have her work showcased as an Artist of the Month. 

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"I felt after every Art class, like I didn't have nearly enough time," said Duevel. "I like drawing something minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing at times. Other times, I hear something loud, full of pantomime, and I can enjoy letting my creativity out in through my art work."

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Duevel's mother told her that as a youngster, she would make little dots of color on the paper. Her mother felt like somehow this little girl could see color in pixels.

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"I don't know how long I've been drawing, and I doubt it was when I first picked up a pencil. In reality, I was probably aware that I was drawing at around age four. I loved to draw everything from pictures of my family to balloons and trees," added Duevel.

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Royalton High School Visual Arts instructor, Carl Halverson, was quick to point out that students with Duevel's ability infrequently enter the art department. He considers it an honor to get to work with these talented young people. "My mother told me when I was about the age of three that a neighbor lady had a "Green Thumb." said Halverson. "She said that Hazel could grow vegetables like no one else. Being a visual youngster who took things quite literally, I checked the next time that I saw this Hazel lady. Her thumb was not green in the slightest and she had no large vegetables hanging from any part of her body whatsoever. This analogy is replayed occasionally in different forms in the RHS Art department. Kendra Duevel was about twelve years old when she began the freehand portrait in the photo. She won awards for her abilities locally and has amazed myself and those around her with her "Green Thumb" artistic abilities. When we studied the styles of Pointillism and Cubism in the Art History portion of Drawing class, her work was in a class by itself. Her use of color and pencil technique somewhat resembled the brush strokes of Seurat and Picasso.  Kendra's choice of subject matter was an object from today's world, carefully placed and created as if it was from more than a century ago. Although students are only allowed to enroll in one art class through their entire middle school careers, some gifted students still work independently enough to excel at an extraordinary level. I consider myself blessed to be able to assist them in any way possible to help them succeed to their full potential."

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Duevel's work will be on display in the high school display case. Her future may also include competing at the national level while earning college credits through Royalton's AP Studio Art courses.