By Steve Hubrecht
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A local student with artistic flair has made her mark nationally.

David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) student and Wilmer resident Teigan Bixby recently came second in the Canada-wide Royal Canadian Legion’s Remembrance Day poster contest in the black and white category for Grade 9 students.

Teigan, who will head into Grade 10 this coming September, began her poster, which is a scratchboard drawing, last November as part of her art class. A scratchboard begins with a black board, on which the artist uses different tools to scratch ink off the board surface, expose the white material (often, but not always, clay) underneath, and create an image.

She used a photograph of several soldiers as the basis of her image, zeroing in on the one soldier who stood out most clearly in the photograph. When Teigan finished the piece, her art teacher encouraged her to submit it to the Legion contest. But Teigan hesitated at first.

“It was in a debate with myself about submitting,” Teigan told the Pioneer. “I’m very self-critical, and I didn’t think it would get as far as it did. I didn’t realize it would go to Ottawa.”

But submit she did, and the judges liked what they saw.

Teigan’s poster first went to the district level, where it won first place in the black and white category. From there, it went to the B.C. level, where it again won first place in the black and white category. The poster was then sent on to Ottawa, entered in the national level competition. There she came second.

“I only found out a few weeks ago,” Teigan told the Pioneer. “I was shocked. I would never have thought it would do as well as it did.”

Representatives of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 71 Windermere District presented Teigan with her second-place award at DTSS on Tuesday, June 29.

Despite admitting to being self-critical, Teigan said she’s pleased with her work on the poster.

“I was super happy with how it turned out. Especially with a scratchboard, you’re just kind of going with what you see. It’s neat to work on scratchboards because it’s the opposite of most art: the highlights need to be dark, and the shadows need to be light.”

Teigan credits her dad, local RCMP Constable Vince Bixby, as her inspiration to be artistic.

“When he has spare time, all he does is art. I picked it up from him. It’s really relaxing,” said Teigan.