In mid-October, over 350 art students from the Dallas-Fort Worth area had the chance to participate in the 2015 More Than Plane Color Art Contest hosted by the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum.

When Coppell High School junior Julie Choi first learned about the contest, she immediately knew she wanted to enter.

The contest contained four different themes of aviation for student to select: the history of aviation, places that we travel, famous aviators and artists, and aviation equipment and future designs.

Choi won first place for the More Than Place Color Contest grade levels 10 through 12.

“I was thinking more of the lines of the transformation of history over time,” Choi said. “I did the old style movie projector and the transformation of history from a bird, to Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine, to the Wright Brothers, to the World War I fighter plane, to the World War II fighter plane and finally a commercial plane.”

Choi has been drawing from the time she could pick up a pencil. She has stayed with her passion ever since.

Her training evolved from private art tutoring, to Art I in eighth grade, and Art II in her freshman year of high school. Last year she took AP Drawing and is currently taking AP II Design and AP Art History this year.

Choi positively impacts many of her peers and motivates them to grow in their craft.

“[Choi] has always been a strong artist,” CHS senior and friend Joshua Chow said. “I really got to see her in action last year in AP Drawing. She is skillful and is definitely impressive to watch at work. Julie inspires the people around her to work harder.”

When Choi was younger, her art tutor was instrumental in the development of her artistic skills. Nowadays, it is CHS art teacher Tamera Westervelt who Choi turns to for art ideas. But ultimately, Choi’s inspiration comes from her mom Teresa Kim, because she is the one who has supported her from the beginning.

“A lot of people don’t want kids to go into the art field,” Choi said. “It’s unstable per say, but my mom has always supported me and always told me, ‘You do whatever you want, I’m sure you can do it anyways.”

Friends of Choi have seen her dedication as an artist throughout many years and realize how passionate she is about art.

“[Choi] has developed as an artist over the years ever since I met her during middle school,” CHS junior Jayleen Li said. “She loves making art and is always involved in any art events, for example, right now she is the vice president of National Art Honor Society. She has always been a perfectionist in her creations, and over time her pieces just keep getting better and better.”

It took Choi a total of 22 hours to complete her finished artwork, but ultimately was worth it.

“I got the email from [Westervelt] and I opened it,” Choi said. “My first reaction was flailing around my arms and screaming.”

Choi won $300 worth of Prismacolor art supplies and two round trip tickets to anywhere in continental America. Choi plans on using the plane tickets to go with her mom to visit a friend in California.

“I was so surprised and excited when I received the email that day. Julie worked very hard on the artwork,” Mrs. Kim said. “I felt proud that she was acknowledged for her hard work. As for the trip, we will probably visit museums because she specifically loves looking at the exhibits.”

After college, Choi wants to pursue a career in illustration, animation or concept art.

“I’d want to [work for] either Pixar or maybe even a video game design,” Choi said. “Concept art would be the people who first sketch out the ideas that get flushed out so they can become animated so I’d be the one who would design the characters or backgrounds.”

Choi’s artwork, along with 100 other participants of the contest, is on display at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum in Fort Worth until January of next year.

Honorable mentions from Coppell include:
Grades 7-9:
Delany Bell
Raquel Gamboa
Ishita Rastogi
Su Hyun (Judy) Ro
Karina Teruya

Grades 10-12:
Lauren Mallette
Vasileios Papakis
Kore Siller