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Photo by Jerry Hinnen
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Bethany Anderson, a junior at Milan High School, created a self-portrait which was chosen for an exhibit to travel the state. Last week, the exhibit made a stop at the school.
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For Milan High School junior Bethany Anderson, Monday night was a homecoming of sorts — even though she hadn't gone anywhere.
What came home was a self-portrait created last year by Anderson, a promising young artist in Milan's art program. The piece was one of 30 chosen at the Michigan Youth Arts Festival last May as part of the prestigious Governor's Traveling Art Exhibit, representative of the state's very best student art.
Last week the exhibit came to Milan High, and on Monday a reception was held to honor Anderson and her inclusion among the best student artists in Michigan.
"It's really cool," Anderson said during the reception. "I'm glad that people in Milan are able to get out and experience some good art. It's really cool that I'm included with all these other great artists."
The exhibit will run through Friday at Milan High.
Anderson said having the exhibit come to the school has given her some attention, which she's been grateful for, but it's also brought back some of the excitement she experienced when the piece was first selected for the exhibit last year.
"It had kind of worn off," she said. "That was the point where I thought OK, I might be able to make a career out of this."
To that end, Anderson has focused on her attempts to have a piece selected for the upcoming MYAF. While her expertise and love of pencil ("It's what I feel most comfortable with … I like that it's not as dramatic, that's soft and subtle," she says) led her to excel in creating self-portrait, she had decided to move into other mediums for this year's competition.
One candidate is a tempera painting of a mother and child Anderson says she has worked on for a long time.
"(The self-portrait) is definitely my best pencil drawing," she said, "but I've put a lot of work into some things since then that I hope is better.
"I'm really hoping to make it into the exhibit again."
Anderson has a wide variety of interests — choir is a particular favorite — but she says she's realized since middle school, when "everybody else drooped out" and she stuck with it, that art is something special to her.
That's why the exhibit has meant so much to her, and why she wishes she could just make a couple of tweaks to the piece involved.
"I'm glad. It's been a lot of fun," she said. "But I haven't seen it in a while. There are some little things I wish I could change … some lines I would smooth.
"It's hard to know when something's really done!" she said with a smile.
Staff Writer Jerry Hinnen can be reached at 429-7380 or jhinnen@heritage.com.
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