We had a lot of submissions from many qualified young artists, but we kept being drawn back to Elizabeth's work. When we first looked at her samples, we thought surely this can’t be the work of a high school student! Her art instructor noted that Elizabeth was her most outstanding student in 38 years of teaching which is a phenomenal testimonial and not hard to believe! Seriously, just take a look at the art samples that she sent us!!!
Elizabeth is from Rome, Ohio. She plans to major in Studio Art, and her dream career would be to work as a freelance fine artist. She's won a slew of art awards and has been in many art shows. We have no doubt that Elizabeth will be successful in her future art pursuits, because, ya know, she obviously ROCKS!
One of the questions we asked on the application was if the student was ever discouraged from pursuing a career in art, and if so, what were the reasons given, and why did they ultimately decide to ignore that advice. The majority of the applicants all said the same thing... they were told artists are poor or can't get work and that it's not a "real" job. Amazingly, all of the students declared that they couldn't foresee a future as anything but an artist and would rather be happy with their job than making loads of money (that's such a typical thing for an artist to say :) Well, to set the record straight in case any guidance counselors or skeptical parents are reading this, you CAN be an artist and earn a decent living wage!
My own high school counselor told me I'd be wasting my brain by going to art school. Thankfully my parents were supportive, and I was highly motivated to succeed. Most scholarships available to me back then were for 4-year colleges where you had to major in something fancy (expensive) & super-brain powered (law, medicine). So even though I was a good student, I didn't qualify for a lot of scholarships because I wanted to go to a 2-year art school (The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where Jason & I first met). So that was the driving inspiration in starting the Zinggia Art Scholarship. We hope to continue the scholarship for many years to help young artists further their education in visual arts :)
 |
| "Trichotillomania" by Elizabeth Boch is a graphite and charcoal drawing, 14"x11". It won a regional gold key and American Visions nomination in the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards |
 |
| "Self Portrait" by Elizabeth Boch is an oil painting, 16"x13". It won a regional gold key and American Visions nomination in the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and also received First Place in the 2013 Grand Valley Council for Arts and Culture Art Show. |
 |
| "In Losing Your Head" by Elizabeth Boch is a graphite and charcoal drawing, 19.5"x18". It won a regional gold key and American Visions nomination in the 2013 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and Best of Show from the Rabbit Run Annual Art Show. |
 |
| "Stale Rat" by Elizabeth Boch is a drawing with ink and graphite on clapboard. 11"x14". It won a regional gold key in the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards |
 |
| "Behind Enemy Lines" by Elizabeth Boch is a graphite and charcoal drawing, 12"x17". It won a regional gold key in the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. |
