Bev Rickenbaugh is a familiar face to many in Edgerton. Although she is mostly retired, she works at the Edgerton Bakery and has her own business selling doll clothing. Bev’s son, Allen lives in Sioux Falls with his family and his daughter, Carly, is an accomplished artist.

Carly recently won the South Dakota State Art competition. Her school, Tri Valley High School, took second place overall.  Actually, Carly won the contest, but she is only an eighth grader. 

Carly’s mother, Jill, said that Carly has always enjoyed art. In fact, when Carly was in preschool, when many students were still scribbling on their paper, her teacher commented – “. Carly has a clear idea of what she wants it to look like and she stops when she is done.” 

Carly enjoys both drawing and painting. Her winning piece at the art contest was a water color painting of a king fisher coming out of the water. The theme for the contest was “motion” and Carly thought that the bird flying up out of the water conveyed motion well.

Animals are her favorite things to draw and paint. She says her best piece is a drawing she made of an elephant using simple graphite pencils. Another favorite is a colorful peacock she made for Mike and Lindsey Hunstad of Trosky. She gave them the drawing as a wedding present. 

Most of her art skills are self-taught. She has not taken any other art classes than the traditional art classes offered in grade school years. As an eighth grader she can choose a few elective classes, and one quarter each school year she can choose art. This year her other electives were Spanish and shop. She really enjoys the Spanish class, but is not that crazy about shop.  Maybe she will enjoy shop more when she is older and they are allowed to use more tools and have more leeway in what they create.

For the complete article, please see the June 2nd edition of the Edgerton Enterprise. If you do not currently receive the Enterprise, CLICK HERE to learn how to subscribe!