NC students junior Natalia Alvarez, and sophomores Luis Ponce, Joseph Blackwell and Grace Olowojesiku competed in the Booth Western Art Museum Chalk Art Competition in Cartersville on Saturday, October 28, 2017. The competition took place during the 15th annual cowboy festival from 10am-1pm.

“I feel like we did great! We worked hard, we worked together, and we managed our time well,” Blackwell said.

The competing high schools included Cartersville, Harrison, Walton, Kennesaw Mountain, Paulding, Woodland, Adairsville and North Cobb. Each school’s team submitted an original piece of artwork prior to the competition for approval. The museum supplied participating teams with chalk, baby wipes, blending tools, and paper towels.

Due to unfortunate weather, the contest took place inside instead of outside. The weather complications resulted in the use of a 4×4 textured board placed on top of a plastic tarp, located in the sectioned-off part in the upstairs of the museum, instead of a 5×5 asphalt space outdoors. Howard Post, a Western featured artist at Booth Museum, judged the competition.

Blick Art sponsored the competition and provided a goody bag along with cash prizes for all of the participating teams, and festival attendees could visit a booth with a prize wheel while viewing the chalk artists.

The cash prizes consisted of a $150 Blick Art Materials gift card for the first place winner and a $100 gift card for the remaining schools. The winning schools included Harrison (1st), Paulding (2nd), Walton (3rd), and Cartersville (honorable mention).

“As far as something I learned, I would be more prepared to compete next time around, and I think that it is good for us to take risks, leave the building, go out, and compete against different schools and learn from them to see what else is out there,” NC art teacher and team leader Susan Dowling said.