Plains first grader student loves to create

    Branson Fryxell is a Plains Elementary student chosen for the Spotlight on the Arts. He is a seven-year-old in Mrs. Montgomery's first grade.

"He dives right into projects with confidence," said Mrs. Montgomery." It is clear he loves creating projects and practices often." She states that many first graders lack confidence with expressing themselves with art. Bransen is unique in that he dives right to projects without hesitation while often encouraging his classmates offering help to them with their art. His teacher says "his eyes light up when we start an art project!" Anyone can see his artwork definitely stands out!

You might think he is older judging by his skill in a variety of mediums. When asked to come to the art room for an interview, he was so excited he created another piece of artwork, a sculpture just for the interview. He said he wanted to do an animal which was going to be a mountain lion but decided to make the peacock based on the colors of clay he had gotten from his mom. Like many of his works of art created at home he learns from watching how to YouTube videos, pausing the video as he creates. His sculpture has all the primary colors with the addition of his favorite color green. If you look closely, you can see marks representing feathers. He used a knife to make the marks gently pushing into the yellow clay. When asked if he has ever mixed the clay he responded with his nose a bit crinkled and said yes, once I made purple but I didn't like it! His sculpture took him two hours with only a pizza break.

The first thing Branson does after school is go to a multiple drawer container filled with art supplies, mostly from his Grandma Sally, and create. When asked why he likes to make art he responded, "hard and fun."

His favorite medium is wood which you could see from his twenty-three artworks in his plastic tub portfolio. He had a boat that can actually float, raft with a sail and covered slide all made of popsicle sticks strongly constructed. He said he "will continue his art by making stuff that he hasn't done depending on the supplies he finds". 

This young first grader also enjoys fishing, hunting, and hanging out with his mom and dad.