As the bell rings for fifth hour to start, senior Lewis Perkins sits at the lunch table either eating his home brought food or drawing light poles in his sketchbook. Flipping through his book, Perkins has a whole city sketched out. He looks over everything and then makes corrections on his work, as if he remembers it all from his heart. Once class starts, he’ll get out all his pencils and the picture he’s working on.

In November, Art teacher Ms. Kim Meneses had students enter in their best artwork in the All Metro High School Art. Over 1,200 pieces were selected but only 170 spots were available for show in The Tim Murphy Art Gallery in Merriam, KS.

“I put in two pieces thinking both of them were award winning.” Perkins said.  

His 2-D piece, “Favorite Little Cousin,” was selected for display. The second picture Perkins had selected was a drawing of his Lexus car. Perkins was a little disappointed that both had not won.

“The Lexus picture was my favorite one,” Perkins said. “I thought that was the best out of the two pictures and wished that one had won. But I’m proud that one of my pictures is going to be shown off.”

When Perkins is not in the art room, he has a part-time job at Sam’s Club here in Independence. A fellow art lover and classmate senior Karly Huffner likes Perkins’ work and personality.

“Lewis Perkins definitely has a good passion for Art,” she said. “He’s very talkative and outgoing.”

Students attended a reception Dec. 7, 2017 at the Tim Murphy Art Gallery. It took Perkins over two full weeks for his to complete his artwork, once it was done Perkins was satisfied.

“I like all of Perkins’ artwork,” senior Lily Preston said. “He definitely has a passion for art. He’s funny at a lot of times and definitely has a lot of sass in the classroom.”

Seven other students also had their work selected and displayed with Perkins’ work. One thing Perkins will do is work on an art piece well until he’s satisfied with the end result. Perkins will also restart a piece until he thinks the piece is mastered to win awards.

“He’s always adding hours to his creations,” senior Matthew Rice said. “He’s an artist’s, it’s what we do. He has improved dramatically over the years that I have known.”

As Ms. Meneses talks to the class, Perkins is up looking around at others work seeing how everyone sees things in their lives. He sits and listens to the teacher carefully, keeping quiet and seeing how he can perfect his work.