MIAMI – Millions of people everywhere celebrated Earth Day on Saturday.
And that included a group of talented young artists and next-generation environmentalists.
The name of the school is Sunset Elementary, and on a bright morning this week, Local 10 News anchor Kristi Krueger had the honor of surprising some great kids and their amazing art teacher.
They are the winners of this year’s “Local 10 eARTh Day Art Contest.”
Art teacher Katherine Norman guided nearly two dozen of her fourth-grade art students to create a vibrant, eco-friendly rendition of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous flower paintings.
Named “Reimagined-Van Gogh’s Flowers,” the art piece stands more than 4 feet tall and is made completely from repurposed items, including 120 plastic bottles, 60 plastic bags and an old tire as the base.
Isaiah Gabriel, an art student at Sunset Elementary School, told Local 10 News he was inspired to create the sculpture after spending time at the beach with family and friends last summer.
The sculpture is proudly displayed outside the school’s media center and each flower is as unique as the student who created it.
“I really love art because there are no rules and you can do whatever you want, so, you don’t have to do it this way or that way, you can do it your own way,” said Sunset Elementary art student Julieta Menotti.
The sixth annual Local 10 eARTh Day Art Contest invited South Florida schools to create an original, eco-friendly work of art.
Ten finalists were chosen and viewers voted online for their favorite piece where the artwork with the most votes win.
Thanks to our contest sponsor, Publix Supermarkets, the school received a celebratory cake and some much-needed green for its art department.
Publix Supermarkets representative Robyn Hankerson Printemps presented Ms. Norman and her students with a check for $4,500.
The awesome artwork took about a month to create, showing just how beautiful recycling can be, and to that, we say Happy Earth Day!
