FLY YOUR FLAG CONTEST WINNERS
13-18 category
“IN OUR ROOTS WE TRUST”
1st Place
"I've drawn an ear of blue corn to honor the indigenous peoples of North America. The color of the kernels is a mix of the red, white and blue that we see on our current flag. The colors represent the hardiness, valor, innocence, purity, vigilance, perseverance, and justice of our country. The green of the husk signifies the earth and all that came before us, and on the ribbon it says, 'in radices speramus nobis,' which means, 'in our roots we trust,' in Latin."
Zoe, age 14
2nd Place
"My re-imagined American flag seeks to depict the tapestry which makes up American culture and history. The main piece is obviously the intertwined lines which translate the feeling of this tapestry onto the canvas of the flag. The two different lines crossing again and again reflect the diversity of Americans and... [their] interconnectedness. To retain and recognize the historical aspect of our flag, the 13 colonies are now represented by 13 stars which appear on the left of the flag. Finally, I retained the flag's traditional colors mostly untouched beyond a slight brightening to display an optimism about America's future."
Christopher, 18
3rd Place
" I depicted a group of people of varying backgrounds painting and altering the American Flag...The figures in my flag are working in collaboration with one another to make the changes they want to see, showing it is the power of the people to push for the policies, beliefs, and ideas that will positively impact them. This flag not only symbolizes the progress we have made as a nation but the progress we are still making today.
I also wanted to include two people, to the right, that are retouching a tarnished American flag in order to restore and remind us of what America stands for: equality, justice, and liberty."
Milka, 17
8-12 category
1st Place
"I wanted to represent the diversity in the states and people in our country. I did this by hand cutting 50 unique and different stars to depict the differences in our beautiful states and a person's silhouette with 13 stripes in colors of the rainbow symbolizing our qualities and our individual personalities. After all, the world would be no fun if everyone and everything were the same."
Grace, Age 12
2nd Place
"The stars of the states are shown on 'Turtle Island' which is part of the Native American origin story for the American continent. Blue stripes are the streams to rivers of our nation flowing into the ocean, origin of all life on earth. Brown and white stripes are the diversity of our ethnic origins, flowing together with red stripes, our common blood."
Adeline, Age 9
3rd Place
"I cannot vote but my art expresses my understanding of our dreams and desires as US Citizens. My cultural background helps me realize how important it is that we are loved, we are shown kindness and everyone is honest with us."
Thomais, Age 12
Thank you so much to the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy at Vanderbilt University for sponsoring these prizes
