The award was presented by Deb Myers, an assistant professor of art and the chair of the visual art and design department at 91ֱ��. Myers previously taught art for 25 years at Highland High School, where she worked with Houchins.

Houchins was a promising 15-year-old art student when he was involved in a tragic car accident.  The driver was killed instantly, and Houchins was paralyzed from the waist down. After months of healing and rehabilitation, Houchins returned to class in a wheelchair. He could barely hold a pencil and could not push down on it. Myers, Houchins and his mother, Jeanna, came up with a plan for him to use a black pen that was attached to his hand with Velcro. Houchins went on to create beautiful, detailed and award-winning landscapes.

He graduated from 91ֱ�� in 2004 and eventually was a sportscaster at WGEM Radio in Quincy for nearly a decade before he died in October 2017.

Dotson will receive a $250 certificate for the Culver-Stockton bookstore if he attends C-SC, and he also received art supplies.

The High School Student Art Competition is a juried competition that is open to any students who live in 20 counties in northeast Missouri, west-central Illinois and southwest Iowa. The exhibit will be on display at the Quincy Art Center and at  from Jan. 23 to Feb. 25. Awards are selected by juror Lindsey Dunnagan, assistant professor of art at Truman State University.

The studio art program at Culver-Stockton was ranked No. 7 in the United States in a listing of best value small college degrees for art by BestValueSchools.com. Artists will have opportunities to work in drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, pottery and crafts. Visit /future-students/undergraduate/majors/ast/ to learn more.

###

Edward “Scape” Martinez is a California-based accomplished multidisciplinary artist and writer who has been involved in graffiti art since the 1980s. He has pushed the boundaries of graffiti and street art, bringing his urban style into fine art, public art and the educational arena. He will speak to the Pandemic Art class taught by Debra Scoggin-Myers, senior lecturer in art.

The name “Scape” stands for Screaming Creative And Positive Energy. Martinez lives and works in Newark, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area.

Martinez’s paintings combine elements of graffiti art and abstract expressionism to create large scale, rhythmic and expressive compositions. He also is an advocate for the arts, frequently doing graffiti orientated workshops and lectures for teenagers and fellow artists and educators interested in understanding graffiti as an art form.

Martinez also has written several books on the art and technique of graffiti, and he has lectured and exhibited in a variety of museums and art magazines. He has created large murals for the Stanford Law School, San Jose City College and the East Palo Alto Mural Arts Project.  He owns and operates Liquid Scape, a street wear clothing line. He has been the assistant art director and lead artist-in-residence for the Children’s Shelter of Santa Clara County.

###

Scoggin/Myers was recognized for her piece, “Reflections of a Dog Owner.” Pat Kern, a former adjunct instructor at C-SC, received second place for her piece, “Banjo Man.” Both pieces were accepted into the Missouri 50 competition, the 28^th annual juried professional fine art exhibit at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Mo.

Both artists exhibit their work in the Alliance Art Gallery in Hannibal and Art House in Fulton. Scoggin/Myers also has been selected to be a part of the juried exhibition “On the Surface, On the Ramp” at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild from Sept. 20 to Oct. 23, and she will be the featured artist, along with alumna Amanda Brown ‘18, at the Alliance Art Gallery from 5-8 p.m. on Sept. 14.

###