C-Falls girl's artwork could win national contest

Columbia Falls High School senior Raychel Hoerner turned a classroom art assignment into the chance to win a nationwide competition.

For the 11th annual Doodle for Google contest, Hoerner incorporated the Google logo into a painting of a bighorn ram and a tunnel along Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier Park.

“I’ve always enjoyed painting landscapes and wilderness scenes,” Hoerner said. “The opportunity to do it on the Google page was right up my alley.”

The contest was open to K-12 students throughout the United States, asking young artists to redesign the Google logo with the theme “When I grow up, I hope...”

Hoerner was chosen as the Montana winner by a panel of judges that included 2018 National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning, “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon and Kermit the Frog.

The next phase will be determined by online public voting, open from June 3-7 at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html

That tally will determine the five national finalists, with one in each of five grade groups; Hoerner’s entry will be among those for grades 10 through 12. A panel of Google employees will choose one winning artwork to be featured on the Google homepage for a day.

The national winner also will receive a $30,000 college scholarship and their school gets a $50,000 technology package toward the establishment or improvement of a computer lab or technology program.

The remaining four national finalists will win a $5,000 college scholarship, a trip to Google headquarters, a Chromebook and an Android tablet. As a state-level winner, Hoerner has already earned an Android tablet valued at $300.

Hoerner said Columbia Falls teacher Kate Daniels used the Google competition as inspiration for an art exercise in her pottery class.

“Originally I was just trying to get the grade in the grade book,” Hoerner said. “But I started having fun with it and decided to take it home.”

Her medium on the project included acrylic paint and “whatever else I had in my room at the time,” she said.

Art is one of Hoerner’s favorite hobbies. She took an art class every year of high school and she is a member of the CFHS art club, but she isn’t planning on a career in art. Hoerner graduated from Columbia Falls High School on Saturday and plans to attend Montana Tech in Butte this fall, possibly aiming for a degree in civil engineering.