Young BC artists lasso rodeo honors

Photo: Bridge City students, from left, Hannah Huff, Jordan Janis, Jaelyn Nichols and Chris Quilon show off their western paintings that will be featured in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Hayloft Gallery from Feb. 27 to March 18. (Photo by Debbie Gregg)

Dave Rogers

For The Record

Four Bridge City art students beat the odds and will have their western art displayed at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Hayloft Gallery.

The works might even be chosen for auction, where the top prices are $28,000 to $38,000.

Already, Bridge City junior Hannah Huff has won a best of show award.

Schoolmates Jordan Janis, a senior, and Jaelyn Nichols, a junior, won gold medals.

The rodeo’s School Art Program awards just 20 best of show and a like number of gold medals.

Chris Quilon, a senior, won special merit for his effort.

The annual rodeo runs from Feb. 27 to March 18 at NRG Park in Houston.

This is the 10^th year for BC students to compete in the School Art Program at the rodeo, said Debbie Gregg, the school’s art teacher.

It’s one more year than Gregg expected to participate when she retired at the end of the last school year.

But Gregg was rehired by the district to teach a floral design class for its career technology department.

And “I’m still working with Art 3 and 4 students, so I’ve taught them for three or four years,” she said.

While about 65 BCISD art students took part in the competition, they all didn’t make it to Houston.

“This year, we held a school judging first,” Gregg said. “They were judged locally, and only the top 15 went to Houston.

“Out of those, four students were selected for the Hayloft Gallery.”

Those four students have all been offered scholarships, Gregg said, either to the Western Art Academy in Kerrville or the School of Glassell in Houston.