Staff photo by Clay Schuldt A special opening reception was held at the Grand for the February artists of the month. This month features the works of (L to R) Sierra Nicole Wersal, Kallie Olson, Sylvia Bentler and Carmen Schotzko.

NEW ULM — The Grand Center of the Arts held a welcoming reception of its February Artists of the Month.

Each month, the Grand celebrates local artists in New Ulm schools. This month featured the work of four local students — Sylvia Bentler, Carmen Schotzko, Kallie Olson and Sierra Nicole Wersal.

Sylvia Bentler, 10, is a 5th grader at St. Anthony Elementary School. Her featured art piece was a sculpture made from found materials. Using a pop can as a base, she created a mini-bear sculpture.

Bentler said she came up with the idea of similar projects she saw on the internet. Originally she planned to used clay to form some of the bear’s features but was limited by her resources. She found a foam substitute to finish the project. The base of the sculpture was decorated with various sweet foods. Bentler said she imagined anything coming out of a pop can would be sugary.

Bentler has always loved art. She started drawing but recently has gotten into crafts and three-dimensional art.

Carmen Schotzko, 12, is a 6th grader at New Ulm Middle School. Her piece was a patriotic drawing of a penguin giving a salute with the stars and stripes waving behind him. Schotzko said the drawing was partially inspired by her father who served in the army. The inclusion of the penguin is a common trademark of Schotzko. She is well known at school and home for drawing penguins, they are her favorite animals. Many of her works start with penguins and expand out from there. For this particular work, she drew the penguin in the kawaii animation style.

Schotzko’s favorite art form is plain pencil drawings because it offers her the freedom to draw what she wants.

Kallie Olson, 16, is a junior at Cathedral High School. Her piece is a pointillism bison. Pointillism is the practice of applying small strokes or dots of color to a surface to create an image at a distance. Her pointillism bison is made of thousands of small dots. The process of creating it took over 30 hours. She said the hardest part of creating the bison was forming its face.

Olson said this was her first attempt at pointillism, but she enjoyed the experiences and plans to work in the medium again Her next pointillism will likely be a bird.

Olson is a fan of several art forms. She also enjoys playing piano and quilting. At school, she is currently working with charcoal drawings.

Sierra Nicole Wersal, 15, is a sophomore at New Ulm High School. Her art piece is an ink drawing of a frightening clown. The idea of the project was to work with shading and create different light values using only an ink pen.

Wersal said she is usually a painter. The ink drawing was a different approach for her but said it was not too difficult.

In creating the clown’s face, she started with the nose and worked outward. The idea for a clown was inspired by her friends, but Wersal admitted she was drawn to the creepy imagery.

The works of Bentler, Schotzko, Olson and Wersal will remain on display at the Grand for the next month. Program Manager for the Grand, Tamara Furth, said the idea of the Artist of the Month program was to give young artists a chance to showcase their work beyond the schools.

The next artists of the month will premier their works in March.