Catholic art students awarded in statewide contest

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St. Joseph Catholic High School student Grace Rasmussen took honorable mention in the She Started It art competition for this painting of Peggy Barker, a former teacher at the school.

OGDEN — That female role models are important for young women seeking to make their way in the world is something two Utah Catholic school students recently recognized in their artwork as each paid homage to a personal heroine and were recognized for their efforts. Both students won awards in She Started It, a statewide art competition sponsored by Better Days, an organization founded in 2020 to recognize the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Utah.

“We’re trying to expand to the history of women’s leadership in all areas,” Rebekah Clark of Better Days said of the group’s efforts, which include the organization’s website UtahWomensHistory.org and the art contest. “We just expanded that mission to show women have been leaders in all areas of Utah life.”

“For this event, we purposely keep the prompt pretty open-ended,” Clark said of the contest. “We keep it open enough so it’s just highlighting women who have made a difference in their community.  We decided that that focus on individual communities that all the students represent was important and that they could interpret what their community was.”

Both Catholic schools students chose to highlight a woman in their school community who has had a positive influence on them and their peers.

Grace Rasmussen, 16, a sophomore at St. Joseph Catholic High School, received an honorable mention in the high school category for her portrait of Peggy Barker, a former art teacher at the school.

“Everybody at the school really loved her; her work is amazing,” Grace said of Barker, who retired last year. “Everybody takes art because she is such a great teacher, and she’s been working there for 35 years. She said that when she first came in ‘I’m only going to work for maybe a year or so,’ and then she just started growing with the school and has really impacted everyone that has ever been there – generations down to me.”

Barker retired at the end of the 2022 school year but continues to substitute teach at the school and has been Grace’s instructor on occasion.

In her portrait, Grace chose to surround Barker with the things she loves the most. While at the school Barker was head of the school’s gardening club, “so I decided to put the flowers and the different ferns she would grow around campus to make it beautiful,” Grace said. She included an artist’s palette and brushes “just because she’s a great artist.”

Barker’s example means “I can achieve anything,” Grace said, “because she never wanted to be a teacher but then she fell in love with it, and she can still pursue her art. I think if I want to do something, then I should pursue it like she did.”

Grace knows something about life not going according to plan. She and her mother, Erin Calhoun, moved to Utah from Gallatin, Tenn., just 18 months ago, not long after her father passed away. The two needed a change so Calhoun accepted an invitation from her sister to come to Utah and to try out St. Joseph’s. Calhoun was nervous about how Grace would react to the transition but shouldn’t have been, she said.

“She has just blossomed. I wasn’t sure how it was all going to go but she is just thriving,” Calhoun said. “It has been the best blessing.”

After getting her education, Grace would like to work at a state or national park because she loves nature and history.

Juan Diego Catholic High School senior Camelia Diaz, 18, also won an award in the contest; her piece was selected as a Judge’s Choice winner in the high school category. She chose Peri Flanagan, chairperson of the school’s theology department and Campus Life coordinator, as the subject for her painting.

“She acts like the mother of the school,” Camelia said of Flanagan. “She is always on top of everything and she’s so good with it, too. Everyone sees her as a big role model.”

Camelia got to know Flanagan recently when the teacher accompanied a group of students on a trip to St. George. Camelia was inspired by the way Flanagan “looked after everyone, even at night,” she said. “How Christian she is amazes me; she made my life so much easier.”

Camelia is planning on majoring in aviation in college with an eye to being a pilot. She hopes to pursue art as her minor there.

The students’ artwork was on display at the Utah State Capitol on International Women’s Day on March 8 and will be part of a Utah Division of Arts & Museums traveling exhibit this summer.

Along with a certificate for winning honorable mention, Grace received a $100 cash prize, with which she plans to buy art supplies for a couple of pieces she is contemplating. Camelia received theater tickets.