Lorena High School senior Sophia Taverner has been doing art her entire life, and soon people from across Texas will be able to see it. Taverner’s piece “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was selected to hang in the Texas Art Education Association’s Youth Art Month Spring Exhibition at the Bullock State History Museum in Austin. “It feels really special to me because I kind of do this as a hobby, and sometimes I’m like oh this is just for me, it’s not that good, and to have people be this is good enough to be chosen for other people to see is really just exciting,” said Taverner. “I’m excited for other people to say things, and to hear things about what other people think of it.”

Taverner first created the piece for an assignment in AP Art class. It was a three piece mini-series that is essentially the life of a cowboy, but she did not go into the project thinking of that. “I really wanted to focus on different mediums, and different materials that I could use later on in my large portfolio to submit. I was looking, and I saw some ideas, and I saw some photos, and I was like that is really cool. What if I did something like that, and then I just kind of built up, and built up, and built up more of an idea to get what I actually created.”

The honor of having a piece selected for the Youth Art Month Spring Exhibition makes Taverner proud as a Lorena art student. “I think it really brings promotion to our program. It’s been a great experience being in this program. Mrs. Sciacca has done a great job at making this a fun and exciting program, and experience to be a part of.”

The Bullock State History Museum in Austin will host the exhibit throughout the month of March which is Youth Art Month. An awards ceremony will be held at the museum on March 9.