By DEB GRUVER

Staff writer

Goessel fifth grader Hannah Adrian isn’t sure what she wants to do for a career yet.

She is only 11, after all.

But she soon will be able to add “nationally exhibited artist” to her fifth-grade resume.

Hannah Adrian’s mixed-media piece, “Chillin’ on the Grassland,” depicting a giraffe, will be one of 12 artworks from Kansas students shown at the National Art Education Association conference April 13 to 15 in San Antonio.

“It’s cool getting to go to nationals,” Hannah said in art teacher Kacie Schmidt’s classroom.

Hannah has a lot of interests. She plays violin, piano, and clarinet and hopes to pick up a ukulele soon. She sings in the Newton Children’s Community Choir. She acts.

Art probably won’t be her career.

“I just like doing it for fun and being creative,” she said. “I’m thinking about acting, but I also enjoy photography.”

Hannah and her family traveled to Topeka on Saturday to see her submission for Youth Art Month. A committee from the Kansas Art Education Association chose which artists would go to nationals. The association invited art teachers from every school in Kansas to submit one piece of art for Youth Art Month.

“I looked through hundreds of pieces, and I picked Hannah’s giraffe,” Schmidt said.

Kathy Schroeder, president of the state association, called Hannah’s art “just delightful.”

“I’m an animal lover anyway,” she said. “I liked how she made a connection between another grassland and our grassland. I thought it was interesting and appropriate for imagery.”

The national exhibit is “really a fine show. It’s pretty fun to see it all,” she said.

Hannah used crayons, collage, and a marker to create her piece.

She worked on it during three or four art classes. All Goessel fifth graders take art twice a week.

“I feel proud of my artwork,” she said.

In second grade, Hannah’s oil pastel of a Van Gogh vase was published in “Celebrating Art.”

She enjoys art, “but I’m more of a music kid,” Hannah said. “But, yeah, art is fun, and I definitely have a creative side.”

She likes painting and oil pastels.

“I also like chalk, but it gets really messy,” she said.