By RANDY BARTLEY
Staff writer
Archie, a dog owned by Clarion-Limestone High School freshman Emma Zacherl, has made the leap from C-L to the halls of Congress.
That’s because Zacherl’s water mixable oils painting of Archie, titled “Good Boy, Archie”, was the winner of this year’s Congressional Arts Competition for Pennsylvania’s 15th U.S. House District represented by Congressman Glenn Thompson.
An independent panel of judges selected Zacherl’s work from a record 125 entries for the 15th District competition. The winners were announced over the weekend during an exhibit in DuBois.
Zacherl’s artwork of Archie will be displayed in a special exhibit in the U.S. Capitol in Washington for the next year with the other congressional district winners from across the nation.
She will attend a reception with the other winners in June.
Zacherl has displayed her work in several local shows, and she earned best in show honors last summer at the Laurel Festival in Brookville.
She also won first place honors at the Oil Heritage Festival in Oil City for her painting of the Juniata Furnace, and she recently had her own show at the Phrame It art gallery in Clarion.
Zacherl has also won awards at the Autumn Leaf Festival and the Slippery Rock University High School art show.
Zacherl was commissioned to do a series in her relative Bryon Smail’s book “The Iron Furnaces of the Cove.” Four of her drawings of the old furnaces appeared in the book.
She will also have illustrations in the second book in the series.
At C-L, she participates in volleyball and plays guitar in the modern band class. Out of school she is in the Girl Scouts and enjoys camping and white water rafting.
Her winning artwork will also be on House.gov’s Congressional Art Competition page.
Lily Spratt, another Clarion-Limestone student, received honorable mention honors in the 15th District competition.
And Keystone student Rosalynn Renfrew took second-place honors with her submission “Beauty of Self.”