Rewarding talent
Dakota Palmer stands with her full-ride scholarship award to The Art Connection at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
An example of one of Dakota Palmer’s anime artworks
Dakota Palmer was planning to become a lawyer, but now she believes she’ll have to put that on the back burner for a while and change her focus to becoming an artist.
That change in career path came when the 11-year-old Mt. Morris girl received a full-ride scholarship to The Art Connection at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
The Art Connection is one of Pittsburgh’s premier art programs for students in fifth to ninth grades. The program begins Oct. 3 and will take place at the museum for two hours every Saturday.
“(The scholarship) is a statewide thing and they said they only chose a few,” Dakota said, holding the award letter she and her grandmother, Rose Burke, received earlier this month.
Both Dakota and her grandmother hope this opportunity will help advance her passion for art.
“I hope she gets to excel more,” Burke said. “This will hopefully help take her further in art.”
Dakota said she can’t wait to advance her skills in different art techniques. Her favorite style of art is anime, and she credited her art teacher, Bridgett Watts of PA Distance Learning Charter School, and some friends for introducing her to the Japanese style.
After experimenting with drawing Pokemon figures, she bought an anime drawing book and now has the capability of stencilling characters identical to the ones found on those pages.
“I really like to draw Pikachu,” she said. “He’s probably my favorite.”
Burke said Palmer’s abilities began to show over the past year.
“Every time we go out to eat and we are waiting for our meals, she starts drawing these characters on a napkin or something, and the waitresses even have comments about how awesome they look,” Burke said.
Her cyberschool art teacher recommended her for the scholarship opportunity and Dakota had to write a letter about why she wanted to attend The Art Connection. The program will teach her multiple techniques and different styles of art, such as screen printing, sculpture, abstract and multimedia art, according to the Carnegie Museum of Art’s website.
Through The Art Connection, Dakota will learn in the same halls where some of the greatest works of art are displayed. She wonders if her art will someday be displayed on the walls of that museum.
“I’m hoping to go further with the talents I have and maybe become an artist,” Dakota said. “And maybe find out if I have more talent in different forms of art.”